In a rare happening, local social
media activists have recently been sharing a Jordan TV-produced report covering
the official opening of a factory established by a Jordanian businessman to
build and sell light rail vehicles (
LRV) worldwide.
اضافة اعلان
The project proved successful,
according to the report, and a source of pride for Jordanians seeing a fellow
Jordanian accomplishing his life dream and contributing to the economic
development of the host country: Turkey.
Let’s take a look back: The
investor, identified as Mohammad Eid, was in Jordan a few years ago with the
same idea and was interviewed by the same Jordan TV show, where he voiced
tremendous enthusiasm to do something that would help his native country take a
big stride into industrial production and go global.
Apparently, the man failed to sell
his idea locally, when Jordan was struggling to build an LRV operating on the
Amman-Zarqa route. That route is a bottleneck and has been since 1998, when a
feasibility study was completed and received the green light.
Disappointed, the businessman, who
together with his partners were ready to fund the entire venture, flew north.
Within an hour he was in a country that embraced him and his idea and wasted no
time. The LRV has recently been put to service to Eid’s and his hosts’ pride.
He even invited the same Jordan TV
team that had interviewed him in Jordan to the inauguration ceremony. The
show’s host, veteran journalist Amer Smadi, ended the episode with remarks
lamenting the loss and leaving the issue hanging in the air for those to whom
it might concern, without further investigation into who was behind such a failure.
That was it. No response from the
government and no follow-up from the media: Just comments by social media
users, the same we have been hearing all these decades, regardless of the
platform.
This episode sums up Jordan’s
foreign investment story: Promotion resulting in incoming projects wrapped in
enthusiasm that stumble on rigid bureaucracy, followed by a significant portion
of the investors packing up and leaving.
Details do not seem very relevant
here because we have a good hunch of what happened:
Corruption, a complicated
process of doing business, hostile host communities, confusing legislation, a multiplicity
of authorities, lack of coordination, etc. The list goes on.
What we need most is transparency
and for the public and decision makers alike to be aware of what happens to
investors when they come to Jordan and the formidable obstacles they face.
The media is key to a solution. What
if a reporter is “embedded” in the process? What if mainstream media outlets
join ranks, share the costs, and form a taskforce from their journalists to
select certain foreign investors and offer coverage of every step they make
till the project is fully operational, or totally defunct. The outcome of the
coverage could be shared by these media organizations in print, online channels,
TV, and radio in both Arabic and English. If all these organizations broadcast
the production on the same day, on every available platform, imagine the
impact!
At least, we can make sure that
investors will be confident that their voices will be heard and their
investments protected, and that officials will have the chance to clarify and
justify themselves. Meanwhile, would-be investors will take these media
materials as tutorials to learn from and adjust their plans, while authorities
will make changes the system to ensure a more investor-friendly environment.
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