ABSTRACT
Jordan's economic planners are basing the country's economic future on its role as a major staging area for supplying goods to Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, as Gulf transit routes remain threatened by war. The country's dynamic local business community and free-enterprise environment offer ample reason to believe that these opportunities will be exploited during the next decade and beyond. Of course, the country also boasts some familiar handicaps shared by other developing economies. Migration from rural areas and a flow of Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank are clogging the cities. The development emphasis will be on expansion of medium- and large-sized enterprises, in everything from furniture to ready-to-wear clothing and foodstuffs. Expansion of the food supply will focus efforts on the ambitious Jordan River Valley scheme, aimed at bringing 150,000 people to farm 30,000 ha of land in the lush rift valley running north and south through the country.
