west meets east

Amman is a booming city with a sharp mix of West and East. Walking by a new cafe in the trendy Jabal Amman neighborhood you hear the latest club tracks as the intoxicating sounds of the afternoon prayer fill the air. The towers of the Shmeisani financial district have a view of the old, crowded, traditional Amman to the East; the new, modern, wealthy areas of Abdoun, Deir Ghbar, and Khalda in the South and West; and the massive Abdali downtown development project below. Veiled women walk alongside those in the latest designer skinny jeans and Prada sunglasses, down streets full of billboards and brandname logos. Everything is written in Arabic and English. Amman is a hub of commercialism and real estate development. Every time I visit there are new neighborhoods and new development projects.


Doesn't really seem like the country needs economic development workers. The unemployment rate is 13.5%, the Country spends 6.5% of its GDP on education (slightly above average for the Arab World) and has a 99% youth literacy rate, and real estate development projects abound.

But beneath the shiny veneer lies a more complicated story. Jordan has a very large youth population with 70% under the age of 30. Perhaps they should be spending more on education. The actual unemployment rate is estimated to be upwards of 30%-40%. Female participation in the workforce is an abysmal 12%. The Country has very few natural resources (traditionally Jordan has relied on some phosphate exports), leaving it dependent on external sources for its energy requirements. The one "natural resource" it has in abundance, national sites / tourism, it fails to effectivley exploit.

The business culture has a shiny veneer as well, but beneath the surface seems to lack a certain degree of professionalism. Verbal promises and agreements are often broken, contracts often renegotiated. Availability of capital is still ambigous to me. Capital seems abundand for large real estate and business development projects, but very difficult to come by for entrepreneurs.

Look forward to digging deeper and learning more.