AMMAN — In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, King Abdullah II placed Jordan’s geographic location at the heart of the Kingdom’s economic opportunities, stressing that Jordan is strengthening links from the Gulf to the Mediterranean through its role as a hub for trade, industry and technology.
اضافة اعلان
The role is gaining increasing importance as Jordan has built up a range of capabilities in recent years that can help transform its geographic position into economic value. These include infrastructure development, transport networks and logistics systems, modernization of legislation and the investment environment, as well as an expanding network of economic and trade partnerships with regional and international markets.
Economists said these factors give Jordan an opportunity to play a central role in trade flows, supply chains and investment between the Gulf, Iraq, the Levant and the Mediterranean, drawing on its maritime gateway at Aqaba and its industrial, service and technology capabilities.
They told Al Ghad that maximizing the economic return from Jordan’s location requires continued investment in multimodal transport, logistics and supply chains, alongside facilitating trade and customs clearance and attracting investment to productive and service sectors. Such measures could help turn Jordan’s geographic position into broader opportunities for growth, trade and investment.
During his address at the opening session of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, King Abdullah II said Jordan had strengthened its links from the Gulf to the Mediterranean through its role as a hub for trade, industry and technology, while confronting terrorism in the region. He also noted that the Iran war had demonstrated how quickly instability can disrupt trade, investment and people’s lives beyond the immediate conflict zone.
Jordan is closely integrated into the global economy through bilateral and multilateral free-trade agreements with countries around the world. These include its membership in the World Trade Organization, trade agreements with the United States and Canada, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, the Greater Arab Free Trade Area and the Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
The Kingdom has also developed economic partnerships with regional and international countries, most recently through the Industrial Partnership for Sustainable Economic Development, which brings together Jordan, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and Morocco. Established in 2022, the partnership had initial investments estimated at $3.4 billion. Jordan also participates in a trilateral cooperation mechanism with Egypt and Iraq.
Strengthening Economic Links
Ahmad Awad, director of the Phoenix Center for Economic and Social Studies, said the message conveyed by King Abdullah II’s remarks at the UN General Assembly went beyond the political dimension of the region’s crises and directly addressed the prospects for economic stability, trade, investment and development.
Awad said the emphasis on strengthening links from the Gulf to the Mediterranean through Jordan’s role as a hub for trade, industry and technology reflects an understanding of the close relationship between political and economic stability in the region.
He noted that crises and conflicts do not remain confined to the countries where they occur, but also affect trade flows, investment, supply chains and the prices of goods and services.
Developing infrastructure and supply chains gives Jordan an important economic opportunity, Awad said, but sustainable gains also require a secure regional environment and rules that are respected by all parties.
He added that Jordan’s geographic position gives it an opportunity to connect Gulf markets with the Levant and the Mediterranean through the movement of goods, services and investment, while diversifying trade routes and supply chains and strengthening the region’s ability to withstand disruptions and crises.
Jordan has accumulated several assets that can support this role, Awad said, including the Port of Aqaba and its associated logistics network, road and transport infrastructure, industrial and free zones, as well as productive and service capabilities in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food processing, engineering industries and information technology.
Jordan’s network of trade agreements and economic partnerships provides a platform for accessing wider markets, he said. Their benefits extend beyond exports of Jordanian products, also offering regional companies opportunities to use Jordan as a base for manufacturing, storage, services and re-export operations.
Awad said further development of infrastructure, logistics services and supply chains could transform Jordan’s geographic position from a geographic advantage into greater economic value, particularly as the need grows for more diversified trade routes capable of responding to regional and global disruptions.
He stressed that fully capitalizing on this opportunity depends on a stable regional environment and clear rules governing trade and investment. Continued conflicts and instability increase transportation, insurance and trade costs while affecting investor confidence and the region’s ability to realize its economic potential.
Turning Location into Economic Value
Economic expert Mohammad Al-Hadab Al-Sarhan said King Abdullah II’s remarks about strengthening links from the Gulf to the Mediterranean and Jordan’s role as a hub for trade, industry and technology presented a clear economic vision for the Kingdom’s regional role.
He said the message was not simply that Jordan lies geographically between important markets, but that the country’s stability could become an economic advantage in a region where recent crises have demonstrated how quickly disruptions can spread to trade, investment and supply chains.
Jordan’s location gives it an opportunity to serve as a link between the Gulf, Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean, Al-Sarhan said, stressing that location alone is not enough. Its real value emerges when Jordan becomes the fastest, most reliable and cost-effective route for the movement of goods and services.
He pointed to several indicators that could support this role. Customs and transport centers in Jordan processed around 220,000 transit declarations through August 18, 2026, while total handling at Aqaba’s main port reached approximately 8 million tonnes during the first seven months of the year, an increase of 49% from the same period last year.
Jordan also benefits from its network of trade agreements. Around 73.3% of national exports in 2025 went to markets with which the Kingdom has preferential trade agreements, with their value exceeding JD7 billion, according to Al-Sarhan.
These figures could enable Jordan to pursue a more ambitious model based on attracting Gulf and international capital for production in Jordan and using the Kingdom as a gateway to Arab, European, US and other markets, he said.
Infrastructure must develop in parallel, Al-Sarhan added, highlighting the Aqaba Railway project, estimated at around $2.3 billion, along with the development of ports, logistics centers and border crossings and efforts to reduce customs clearance and cargo-handling times.
Competition between trade corridors is no longer determined solely by distance, he said, but also by how many hours goods take to move, how much the journey costs and how reliable the route remains during a crisis.
Recent measures have already reduced the average dwell time for transit containers at Aqaba from around 15 days to approximately 12 days, while daily container-gate capacity has increased from about 900 to 1,200 containers.
Al-Sarhan also highlighted the technological dimension of the King’s remarks, saying a modern regional hub is not simply a port, road and railway, but an integrated digital system connecting ports, customs, warehouses, trucks, factories and investors.
The more Jordan can reduce time and procedures through technology and data, he said, the more competitive it can become as a regional hub and the more attractive it will be to companies restructuring their supply chains in search of stability and resilience.
An Integrated Economic Vision
Economic expert Musa Al-Saket said the King’s reference to Jordan’s efforts to strengthen links from the Gulf to the Mediterranean through its role as a hub for trade, industry and technology carried several messages extending beyond geography toward an integrated economic vision for the Kingdom’s future.
The first message, he said, is that Jordan does not want to be merely a country affected by developments around it, but an active participant in shaping regional economic routes.
Jordan’s position between the Gulf, Iraq, the Levant and the Red Sea, together with its maritime gateway at Aqaba, can turn its geographic advantage into a genuine economic advantage, Al-Saket said.
This means moving from the concept of a “strategic location” to a “strategic role” — becoming a place where goods move through, products are manufactured, services are provided and technology is developed.
Al-Saket said this is not merely a theoretical concept. Jordanian investment data indicate growth in the transport and logistics sector, while recent developments in transit traffic through Aqaba have reinforced the Kingdom’s importance as an alternative and secure route for regional supply chains.
Transforming Jordan into a regional hub for trade, industry and technology could create a more diversified, higher-value economy, he said.
In trade, this would mean increased transit, re-export, logistics, storage and transportation services. In industry, it would involve attracting investment from companies seeking a location close to Gulf, Iraqi, Levantine and European markets while benefiting from trade agreements and export opportunities.
Technology, Al-Saket said, could multiply the value of Jordan’s geographic position. Modern trade increasingly relies not only on roads and ports, but also on data centers, artificial intelligence, digital services, financial technology and supply-chain management.
A second message, according to Al-Saket, is Jordan’s positioning as a link between Gulf capital, Jordanian human and technological capabilities, Arab markets and European markets.
Aqaba provides Jordan with a maritime gateway connecting the Kingdom to global markets. Ministry of Transport data indicate that Aqaba has maritime connections with several major European ports.
Al-Saket called for turning the concept of Jordan as a link between the Arab south and Europe into a national economic project based on developing multimodal transport, railways, industrial and logistics zones, customs clearance, energy and the digital economy.
Source: Al Ghad
