Jordan Offers Access to the Middle East

Jordan’s location in the Middle East bears a double-edged sword for attracting investors, said Muna Nijem, ’01 (XP-70), telecommunications minister for Jordan. “The negative side is, ‘I’m going to take lots of risk putting my money in Jordan because I never know what’s going to happen around it,’” Nijem told the Emerging Markets Group at Hyde Park Center on October 21. “The positive note is there is huge opportunity in the region. Regardless of what’s happening, Jordan is very strategically located, the best place to really migrate from there and move forward. Once Iraq stabilizes, getting into Iraq will be much easier from there.”

Market penetration rates for telecommunication service in Jordan is great, but not as large as officials would like, Nijem said. The government aims to increase penetration for mobile phones to 50 percent in the next eight years, she said. Currently, 98 percent of households receive fixed telephone service; 35 percent receive mobile service, up from 24 percent last year; and 11 percent use the Internet, Nijem said. “The Internet rate could be a bit misleading, because the numbers we have are per home, rather than per person,” she said. “We don’t have exact statistics per person, but still for 11 percent that’s pretty low.”

Nijem believes the spread of telecommunications will solve several of Jordan’s problems. As an “engine for growth,” it will provide residents a better quality of life. “It is a critical infrastructure for other things, like education,” she said. “By default, it is my personal view that it is the best engine for peace. Jordan is a very young country. If you educate its young in a way that is not very Jordan-specific but is global in nature, they will no longer view themselves as citizens of Jordan. They will see themselves as citizens of the world, if you will.”

—Phil Rockrohr