Aqaba Community and Economic Development Program
AECOM International Development and its consortium partners are implementing this USAID-funded 5-year program designed to support the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) in delivering services to its clients. Despite the high economic success of Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), exemplified in remarkable levels of investment and asset growth, there remain considerable shortcomings in the ability of ASEZA to effectively implement its mandate: to manage the ASEZ in a way that ensures that the zonal economic development activities result in economic and social benefits for the residents of Aqaba. There is a need to provide the relevant skills to the local micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) owners and by citizens in Aqaba, to enable them to maximize their benefits from incoming investments.
The Aqaba Community and Economic Development (ACED) program supports ASEZA in its work to address significant remaining challenges to this objective: a significant lack of capacity within ASEZA to properly and efficiently carry out its planning and regulatory functions; the continuous domination of the private sector by SMEs that have not yet adopted modern management principles and are not marketing themselves to become competitive in a global economy; and the insufficient skill sets among the local population impeding business from taking advantage of the economic boom are not present. Furthermore, the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) is a nascent organization that requires assistance to become a world-class developer.
Designed to address these objectives, the ACED program works with both ASEZA and ADC, to prepare citizens to position themselves to take advantage of the new economic opportunities and to ensure that the urban growth translates into a higher standard of living for residents. The program works with institutions, community-based and nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to achieve three principle goals:
- Ensure that ASEZA and ADC have the capacity to deliver services to their clients, especially in the areas of municipal services, regulation, inspection, enforcement, planning, policy formulation, promotion, and development of ASEZ
- Provide the skills needed by local MSME owners and citizens of Aqaba to enable them to maximize their benefits from the investments coming into the ASEZ
- Prepare citizens living in Aqaba to participate in decision making in the zone and to improve access to social infrastructure
