According to the government, the system would connect the country’s main port city of Aqaba with other cities, and important industrial zones and logistical hubs in the country.

The planned rail network would also link the Red Sea port to border-crossing stations with Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This means that Jordan then becomes fully rail-connected with other regional economic powers, including Iran and Turkey. Potentially, this means direct connectivity with China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ network.

Aqaba is Jordan’s only maritime gateway, and the government and the stakeholders in it are keen to develop its transit cargo opportunities. With eventual peace treaties being negotiated in Syria and Iraq, which will result in huge shipments of cargo for reconstruction purpose, Jordan wants a share of that business. An efficient rail system would significantly improve its position in this regard.

The discussions taking place are with Touchstone Capital Group Holdings, which has very close relationships with engineering, project management and fiscal entities in China. A selection of the latter would construct and manage the railway. According to Abeer Khanfer of the Project Management Unit at the MoT, negotiations currently hinge on concluding either a build-operate-transfer or build-own-operate-transfer deal, and agreeing a concession period for the project. 

Aqaba Container Terminal, which is jointly operated by APM Terminals and the Aqaba Development Consortium, fully supports the administration’s objective on rail and the transit cargo business, and has its own initiatives in place to encourage this traffic (see p27-28).

In 2017, a total of 804,000 TEU was handled at the facility, with the volume of Iraqi imports processed registering growth of 86%.

Read this item in full
This complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the September 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 18. To access this issue download the PDF here.