Infrastructure

Energy
Transportation
Airports
Roads and Highways
Railway
Maritime
Telecommunications

Our infrastructure is set up for people, goods and ideas. Jordan’s modern infrastructure helps businesses navigate the world more quickly and comfortably, and move their products and services into markets with ease.

• 55 directly served destinations and 700 served by alliance airlines.
• Expanding airport to serve 9 millions passengers.
• Multi-million dollar investment toward upgrading the cargo terminal at Queen Alia Airport.
• Deep-water harbor of Aqaba, port offers facilities for general cargo, containerized cargo and specialized cargo.
• International standards Aqaba Container terminal managed by APM terminals.
• Railway master plan to develop an extensive rail network.
• Deregulated telecommunication market since 2005.
• Mobile penetration rate of 78%.
• 100% Access to Internet.
• Massive growth of broadband and wireless networks.
• Tech-savvy population.
• High ranks in environment, readiness and usage of technology, 47/127 according to Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008.

Energy

Jordan’s energy sector is growing and developing rapidly. Government direction is geared on reducing energy dependence by increasing sourced of renewable energy and offsetting of efficiency in the energy demand. Various plans are in progress to remedy this situation. The Government of Jordan is therefore actively seeking development of energy sources including the use of the country’s uranium oil shale deposits, and solar and wind powers.

The Kingdom is committed to further integration into the petroleum economies of the region which holds a range of benefits for the Kingdom, including more access to petroleum supplies, reduced costs for such supplies, and an increase in employment and GDP.

Transportation

Transportation infrastructure along road, rail and air links is well developed. Various plans to achieve these improvements are at an advanced stage.

The transportation sector accounts for more than 10% of Jordan’s GDP. It is growing at an annual rate of 6%.The government developed a national transport strategy to upgrade the country’s infrastructure, and enable Jordan to capitalize on its natural geographical advantages.

Airports

Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA): Is undergoing a 550 million USD rebuild project in 2008. A build-operate-transfer contract was awarded to an international consortium led by “Aéroports de Paris” management. After the completion of the project, the capacity of the airport will expand from 3 million passengers to 9 million, whereas, the cargo capacity will be greatly increased.

King Hussein International Airport (Aqaba): The National Air Services of Kuwait won a tender to equip, operate, and transfer the airport for 15 years. 15 million USD have been invested in upgrades. The cargo terminal serves as a sea-air linkage into Iraq and the rest of the region. KHIA has an Open Sky policy.

The Royal Jordanian (RJ) Airlines serves 55 direct destinations and 700 others are served by alliance airlines. It has modern aircrafts. Also, RJ became a member in the One World Alliance in April, 2007. RJ has been privatized in 2007. RJ recently made a multi-million USD investment in the upgrade of the cargo terminal at QAIA.

Roads and Highways

Jordan has excellent road connections all over the country, connecting Jordan with all its neighboring country. It has around 80,000 km2 of paved roads and highways.

Since 2002, the Ministry of Public works and Housing started implementation of its 25 year plan which aims to complete an extensive road network around the kingdom. This includes building ring roads around major cities and development areas such as Amman, Salt and Irbid. Investments on road improvement and development are expected to reach more than 1.8 billion USD within the coming 25 years.

Railway

The Jordanian government prepared a railway master plan to build an entirely new standard-gauge railway network.

The existing railway network in Jordan consists of 620 km of narrow-gauge tracks, operated by:

• Jordan Hejaz Railway: 217 km of operational lines, and 111 km of abandoned lines. It runs 2 passenger trains per week between Amman and Damascus, and freight trains upon request.
• Aqaba Railway Corporation: 293 km of operational lines, transporting around (2.5 – 3) mn tons of phosphate from the mines to Aqaba Port.

A Light Railway BOT project has been awarded to a Kuwaiti-Spanish consortium in 2008 which will connect Amman to Zarqa, around 26 km. The project is estimated to cost 330 million USD. The electric-powered double track railway will be operational in 2011. The line will establish an effective daily passenger transport between Amman and Zarqa catering to 90,000 passengers daily commuters with prompt, frequent trips with reliability and safely.

Back to top

Maritime

Jordan has a single sea outlet on the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Currently, the port is divided into 3 major areas under the government-owned Ports Corporation to complete the port transformation into a world-class business hub. The planned 3 billion USD investment in relocating the main port area, development of area for commercial use, and the construction of general cargo terminal in the southern zone is expected to finish in the year 2020.

Telecommunications

Jordan’s telecommunications infrastructure is modern, with a very competitive mobile and internet landscape. Jordan has one of the most open telecommunications markets in the Middle East and an independent regulator.

The fixed-line market was liberalized on 1 January 2005 with the market open to full competition. Since 1996, internet penetration has increased every year.

According to the Networked Readiness Index 2006–2007 rankings (WEF Report), Jordan scored 57 Jordan 3.74, which comes 5th place in comparison to Arab Countries.

Between 2000-5, the user base grew by more than 300%. The deepening pool of users will increase the number of regular users, increasing the customer base for goods and services either sourced or delivered online.

View Internet Users 1996-2005

Back to top