The Transport Ministry has embarked on an ambitious scheme to overhaul the semi-idle land transport fleet and revitalise Aqaba Port, whose Iraq-bound productivity has dropped drastically in the last few years, the ministry's Under Secretary Alaa Batayneh said on Tuesday.
Batayneh said the ministry joined forces with other public and private sector departments to upgrade and phase out the fleet's 10,000 trucks, 80 per cent of them are pre-1985 models. “Our surveys found that Jordan needs 1,000 lorries, nearly 10 per cent of the working trucks,” he told the Jordan Times. “The qualifications of most of those trucks fall well below the set standards in neighbouring Israel, Turkey or Europe.”
“If we want to compete in regional and international arenas, a thorough upgrading process is needed,” added Batayneh. The scheme provides for encouraging individual truck owners to join forces by replacing their old trucks with a limited numbers of highly-qualified new ones. Incentives as customs and tax reductions are also envisaged under this long-term plan.
“The current individualist trend must develop into a corporate system based on supply and demand fluctuations,” noted Batayneh. Truck drivers complain that their expenses far supersede their earnings as Iraq-bound transit shipments fell sharply since mid-1990's.
“I wait in line in Aqaba for 30 to 40 days to carry one shipment for an average of JD200,” complained Seif Salameh, 32, who is 12 years younger than his truck. Ahmad Kamel, 40, said that almost his entire earnings go to cover monthly instalments for his truck, tyres and maintenance and yearly licensing.
Batayneh acknowledged the dire economic situation of Jordanian truckers and said the ministry was seeking ways to improve their earnings. “We have reduced Aqaba Port transit fees of Iraq-bound goods in order to compete on a regional level,” he said.
On that basis, Iraq said it would switch its trade back to the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Iraq's sole maritime outlet in the 1980's. The decision followed a visit to Amman last month by Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan which reinforced bilateral ties on the political level.
During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Aqaba flourished as the major transit point for Iraq-bound goods.
In recent years and in light of chilled political relations, Baghdad opted for ports in the Arab Gulf, Iran and even its once arch-rival Syria.
Aqaba, with a 22-million handling capacity, reached its peak in 1988, when it handled 20 million tonnes, 6.8 million of them found their way to Iraq.
In contrast, Iraq shipped only 411,000 tonnes via Aqaba in 1999, out of 12.85 million tonnes handled by the port that year. In the first 7 months of 2000, the port handled 7 million tonnes, only 185,000 of them were shipped to Iraq — a sharp drop compared to previous years.
“Jordan is adamant on reviving its Aqaba-Baghdad route despite regional competition,” Batayneh said. “We will go all the way to lure the Iraqis back into considering Aqaba as a viable and lucrative shipping point.”
On the local front, the Transport Ministry plans to regulate the land transportation fleet with a view to give all truckers equal opportunities.
Batayneh defended a government decision that apportioned the imports of 2.6 million tonnes of Iraqi oil to 41 firms.
He said a public committee, headed by the Energy Ministry's Under Secretary Ahmad Bashir, had to distribute the “strategic” tender equally in order to maintain a steady flow of oil.
The committee, he noted, had adopted strict requirements in order to slash the number of potential bidders, but they all met the technical and legal conditions. Several land transportation companies had contested the bids, claiming that highly-qualified firms with a long record of transporting oil, had to freeze many of their oil tankers.
According to the bid, a total of 2.6 million tonnes of Iraqi crude was equally distributed among 41 companies, each of them to ship 175 tonnes per day, throughout the year.
On average, each of the bidders nets a steady income of between JD100 to 200 per day. Batayneh said that the authorities would monitor the performance of oil tankers to make sure they don't violate the bidding conditions. Otherwise, he noted, violators will lose their bid bond of JD150,000 each.
Most of the oil tankers, often fix their trailers to ship containers from Aqaba. To ease the pressure on Aqaba, the Transport Ministry plans to avoid overlapping, by banning the nearly 3000 oil tankers from competing with the rest of the semi-idle fleet at the port. Sanctions-hit Iraq has been exporting around 75,000 barrels of oil and 300 tonnes of gas a day to Amman since 1990. ― (Jordan Times)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
