AMMAN — Transforming
Jerash Industrial City into an
agro-industrial park, a tourism and heritage hub, or an ICT park, will not
change the core aim of the project, which is creating jobs for the local
community, officials said.
اضافة اعلان
The cost of
creating the industrial city is estimated at JD150,000 for each dunum, which is
expensive for attracting investments, deputy general-manager of the Jordan
Industrial Estates Corporation Oday Obeidat told
Jordan News on
Saturday.
Additionally,
not all industries can be launched in Jerash, whose climate and delicate
agriculture and green woodlands would be severely damaged by the disposal of
certain industries, Obeidat said.
The industrial
city in Jerash, which was launched in 2013, is still under construction and
needs JD7 million to complete electricity supply, roads that connect it to the
nearest highway, a water treatment plant, and other facilities, officials said.
Changing the project into a town park is the last thing that Jerash needs, as 24 percent of the governorate’s land is woodlands
Yousef
Al-Zuraiqat, member of Jerash Governorate Council, said that his group will
allocate JD7 million from its JD8 million budget to complete the project as an
industrial park. But he added the amount would not suffice for other projects.
The total cost
has increased the price of land at the park to JD150,000 which is a deterring
factor for investors, according to Zuraiqat, who is also the head of the
council’s investment committee.
“Changing the
project into a town park is the last thing that Jerash needs, as 24 percent of
the governorate’s land is woodlands”, Zuraiqat said, trying to underline the
need for an industrial city to create jobs for the local community.
There are plenty
of food manufacturers in Jerash, mainly established in dairy and olives,
Jerash’s signature produce, according to Zuraiqat.
For establishing
an ICT hub, experts said that it involves buildings and facilities with special
requirements, which would make investment even more expensive at the park
unlike some mechanical industries that would require simpler infrastructures,
said the council’s member.
During a meeting
at
Jerash Governorate Headquarters last week, Jerash Mayor Ahmed Hashem said
that that there is no alternative to the establishment of the industrial city,
which will provide 3,000 to 4,000 job opportunities for the people of the
governorate.
Meanwhile, MP Majid
Rawashdeh called on the concerned authorities to “facilitate the accomplishment
of the project”.
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