Jordan Times
Monday, May 14, 2007
Premier highlights
significance of tourism sector
AMMAN (Petra) — Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on Sunday said the Cultural
Heritage, Tourism and Urban Development Project (the third tourism project) will
help achieve justice in distributing the fruits of development among the
country’s governorates and encourage investment in the tourism sector.
The premier, who made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a workshop, said
the government relies on the project for enhancing the development role of
municipalities, serving local economies, raising the level of social, economic
and cultural services provided to citizens and creating cooperation among the
municipalities and other major industrial sectors such as the tourism sector.
Underlining the significance of the tourism sector, Bakhit said it is one of the
major areas creating work opportunities.
He also highlighted the need for cooperation between the government,
municipalities and the private sector to implement development programmes and
projects in different parts of the country.
During the workshop, organised by the Ministry of Planning and International
Cooperation in collaboration with the ministries of tourism and municipal
affairs, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali said
the event was a practical translation to address the needs of the reform
process.
Al-Ali added that implementing local development plans would help create local
economies capable of achieving efficient and sustainable utilisation of
available resources, explore further investment opportunities, create work
opportunities, reduce poverty and unemployment and limit the local community’s
reliance on foreign resources.
The third tourism project seeks to revive the social, economic and cultural role
of Jerash, Salt, Karak, Madaba and Ajloun through enhancing urban development,
while the Petra Gate Project aims to construct a visitors’ centre that parallels
the site’s cultural character.
The government will jointly finance the project with the World Bank, which will
secure 80 per cent of the funds.
The initial estimate of the project’s cost stands at JD50 million with an
implementation period of five years — from March 31, 2007 until March 31, 2012.