'Six new investment zones planned within Aqaba's Qweira district'

AMMAN — The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) will announce six new investment zones within the district of Qweira, 50km north of Aqaba, Nasser Shraideh, the chief commissioner of ASEZA, said in a statement on Sunday.

The facilities will include three industrial and three logistic zones, Shraideh said, noting that the step is part of ASEZA's endeavours to distribute development gains and introduce investments to different areas within Aqaba, 330km south of Amman, to create more jobs for qualified young Jordanians.

Existing and future projects in the Aqaba zone will provide around 10,000 jobs for Jordanians during the next decade, according to the chief commissioner. 

Shraideh added that the workforce will need the suitable training in cooperation with the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC) and the EU-funded "Siyaha" programme.

ASEZA has agreed with VTC and Siyaha to establish a hospitality college that will start receiving students by the end of 2017. 

The college will be provided with all the needed equipment and curricula in cooperation with universities in Aqaba, with the aim of providing the hotel sector with qualified labour, according to the ASEZA statement.

On the flash floods that hit the city last week due to the rainfall, Shraideh said that no human losses or causalities were reported. 

The floods, he said, were caused by a rare and heavy downpour that brought 175 per cent of the total annual rainfall that Aqaba usually receives.

The infrastructure in Aqaba, as opposed to neighbouring areas, survived the floods with no major losses, the chief commissioner added, thanking all the concerned agencies for dealing with the situation.

Shraideh stressed that some media outlets have been unprofessional and inaccurate, exaggerating the effect of the floods.

He said ASEZA will develop the Aqaba railway to be able to transport containers from Aqaba to the land port in Maan to reduce traffic congestion.

The chief commissioner noted that Aqaba is a "logistic" gateway not only into Jordan, but into the entire region, which requires an efficient transport system.