Jordan Times
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
New customs post to be built
soon on border with Iraq
By Khalid Dalal
AMMAN — Building a new customs post on the border with Iraq will start soon, a
government official said Tuesday.
Minister of Public Works and Housing and Minister of Transport Raed Abu Saud was
quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that the JD50 - JD60 million
project will enhance the customs services at the Jordanian border with Iraq and
will help create many job opportunities.
The minister expected the venture to be completed after ten months.
Sami Halasa, director of the studies department at the Public Works Ministry,
told The Jordan Times that the project will include a terminal for passengers
and another one for trucks shuttling between Amman and Baghdad.
“We will make sure that the new customs post will be equipped with the latest
technologies and can cope with the expected huge flow of goods between both
neighbours,”he said.
In addition to the trade exchange between Jordan and its eastern neighbour,
several international organisations, such as the World Food Programme, rely on
various facilities in the Kingdom to channel humanitarian aid to Iraqi people.
According to Abu Saud, the government is looking into constructing a new road
network between Jordan and Iraq to help boost the trade volume between both
countries.
Halasa said the network will most probably start from the southern port city of
Aqaba passing to the central part of the Kingdom and then to Iraq.
In June, His Majesty King Abdullah ordered the government to take practical
measures to enhance the flow of goods and facilitate the arrival and departure
of Iraqi nationals at the border.
Starting next month, Jordanian trucks will start unloading their cargo in a
newly-established free zone near the Jordanian-Iraqi border and from there Iraqi
trucks will continue the mission until Baghdad. This process is introduced after
tens of Jordanian trucks were subject to robbery while transporting cargo inside
Iraqi territories.