Jordan looks for US$6bn investment
Investors from the GCC look set to begin a mad dash to acquire a foothold in Jordan’s economy as the Hashemite Kingdom invites offers for private companies to take a stake in key infrastructure projects.
Jordan will embark this year on a five year plan to lease key utilities and infrastructure, including airports, to investors and expects investments worth US$6bn, the Privatisation Commission’s head said on Tuesday.
Mohammad Abu Hammour, the head of Jordan’s Executive Privatisation Commission, said the “public private partnership” strategy to be launched in March would outline opportunities for international investors to run ports, utilities, postal services and public transport. “So our estimate for the coming five years is that we will have no less than US$6bn of public private partnership projects,” Abu Hammour said, referring to deals such as Build Operate Transfer (BOT).
The first major venture to be offered this year was a 25-year concession to build, operate and manage a new passenger terminal worth an estimated US$400-450m at Queen Alia airport, the country’s international gateway.Abu Hammour said the new PP strategy would result in savings and reduce the burden on the state treasury by attracting much needed investments to upgrade facilities and public services. “We are now approaching public-private partnerships and instead of having (a large) government, we are downsizing the government and resorting to the private sector to have many projects on a PP basis,” he said. The government last year concluded several key transactions in telecoms and phosphates worth at least US$650m. It alone accounted for over half of the US$1.2bn proceeds that had been accrued since the privatisation plan was launched in 1996. “We have accelerated the privatisation process in the last year and we will keep the same momentum this year,” he added. The government has given six consortiums who prequalified for the airport concession until the end of March to submit their financial and technical offers.
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