USAID has started pumping funds into Aqaba for technical and training support of the independent authority there, as well as a host of water, industrial, health, transport and archaeological projects, the Jordan Times reported.
According to the daily, officials hope that the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) — a low-tariff, duty-free area launched by King Abdullah on May 17 — will attract $6 billion in foreign investment and create 70,000 new jobs by 2020.
USAID is so confident about the potential of the port city as a regional commercial, industrial, and tourist hub, that it is providing $71 million to the ASEZ, said the Times.
USAID Director Toni Christiansen-Wagner was quoted by the paper as saying that “there are great expectations, and we are very supportive.”
“We look at Aqaba as a model for the future development of the whole country.”
USAID is providing approximately $19 million in technical and training support to the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA).
Some of this money has already financed advisory legal assistance to draft the ASEZ law, endorsed by parliament in August 2000, it added – Albawaba.com
