Jordan Times
Wednesday, June 23, 1999
AMIR and YEA launch 'Jordan Vision 2020'
Meetings to produce a private sector-driven economic strategy
AMMAN (J.T.) — Business leaders rolled up their sleeves on Tuesday, put on their thinking caps and started intensive meetings to arrive at a unified private sector strategy document that will guide Jordan's development and growth into the next century.
Sponsored by the USAID-funded Access to Microfinance and Improved Implementation of Policy Reform (AMIR) Programme and the Young Entrepreneur Association (YEA), the “Jordan Vision 2020” initiative brings together top businesspersons and representatives of Jordan's various business associations for a series of four meetings.
“Other countries of a similar size and resources as Jordan have established their economic mark in the global economy by turning the small size of their business into an advantage and by making themselves attractive to investors,” explained Zaki Ayoubi, component leader of the AMIR Programme's Business Association Initiative, which organised the meeting.
“The Vision 2020 meetings are designed to highlight stories of economic success in such countries and to derive a rationale for engineering Jordan's own economic strategy, which logically must involve the private sector in its development and implementation,” an AMIR statement quoted him as saying.
Developing successful policy for the 21st century was the main focus of the meeting, which involved speakers from Forfas (the Industrial Policy and Advisory Board of Ireland), the organisation that has spearheaded the dramatic economic success story of Ireland, a country similar in many respects to Jordan.
Jon Lindborg, director of the Economic Opportunities Department at the U.S. Agency for International Development, inaugurated the meeting and stressed the importance of attracting significant levels of investment to Jordan.
In another address, David Lovegrove, Forfas's corporate secretary, touched on the Irish experience and the pivotal role of the private sector in reaching a national strategy that led to Ireland's economic boom.
A presentation about international trends, expected to emerge during the coming 20 years, and the ways of developing technologies and international economies that might affect Jordan was offered by Eoin Gahan, senior economist at Forfas.
Gahan also addressed the sort of economic and business environment Jordan must create in order to compete in the future's global economy.
Participants reviewed Jordan's current economic conditions, and discussed the implications of the global trends on the steps that Jordan must take to achieve future economic growth and prosperity.
The first meeting will be followed by at least three working meetings designed to produce a private sector strategy document.
This document will be presented at a strategy conference in October 1999, which will bring together leaders from the private sector, government, international organisations, academia and non-governmental organisations to thoroughly discuss the final Jordan Vision 2020 strategy.
The AMIR Programme, a four-year project funded by USAID, is aimed at assisting the transformation of the business environment to increase economic growth through investment and enhanced global competitiveness of Jordan's business community.
Since its launch in March 1998, the AMIR Programme has engaged in a wide variety of activities related to three major components: Improved policy reform and implementation, sustainable microfinance, and strengthening business association services and advocacy