Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
National panel to set state
priorities — Muasher
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — A widely-representative committee is to be formed next week to draw up a
new scale of state priorities over the coming decade, including plans to reform
government performance, a senior official announced.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs and
Government Performance Marwan Muasher told businesspeople and the Jordan Trade
Association (JTA) at a meeting on Monday that parliamentarians, private sector
and civil society institutions and other segments of the society will form
majority of the panel.
Noting that the government will be slightly represented, Muasher was quoted by
the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that the committee is part of a
government plan to “make radical changes in the executive power's performance.”
Muasher, meanwhile, said the Finance Ministry does not set the priorities of the
state. “These priorities from now will be determined in line with a national
agenda that we will all agree on,” he said. “After that we will be engaged in
discussing budgets and missions, which are not exclusively under the
jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry. This is rather the job of the entire
government,” the minister told more than 200 businesspeople.
Muasher also said unemployment will increase from the current 15 per cent to a
“catastrophic” 24 per cent in the coming 10 years “unless something is done
about it.”
Currently, he noted, the government creates 25,000 jobs a year, but even if this
number rises to 90,000 a year, joblessness will decline only to 10 per cent in a
decade. He said 1.3 million individuals from the age category of 10-19 years
will enter the labour market within a few years.
Another alarming figure, he added, is the ratio of working citizens to the
population, which stands now at 23 per cent. In developing countries, he
explained, such an average is put at 47 per cent, meaning that each working
citizen supports two individuals, rather than five, as the case is in Jordan.
“There is a need to build a self-reliant economy instead of an economy that is
nourished by foreign assistance and grants and one that remains vulnerable to
fluctuations in oil prices,” he said.
On government appointments, the minister said: “The appointments of senior
officials are not in accordance with the civil service system and they are
subject to personal moods and based on personal connections.”
The selection of such officials will be subject to competitiveness standards in
the future and the committee will “make sure that the right man is in the right
place,” according to Muasher.
Attendants felt the government “means business this time,” but the plan is “too
ambitious and unrealistic”.
“I am not sure of the government's ability to render this plan a success,” said
President of the JTA Halim Abu Rahmeh.
He told The Jordan Times that he and his colleagues believe that for such a plan
to see light, there is a need for “support from all and coordination among all
concerned parties.”
Yet, it was clear that Muasher and his team are serious about proceeding with
their mandate, he added.
“Consequently, this will reflect positively on the performance of the economy in
general and the exports sector, in particular. At the end of the day, ordinary
citizens will feel the difference,” Abu Rahmeh said.