LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jordan
built 232 days ago
Jordan is a highly urbanized country. Seven out of every ten Jordanians live in towns of 5,000 or more; the balance resides in villages and encampments. With the return of the Palestinian Jordanians from Kuwait in 1990 and 1991, many of whom settled in Amman, 1,864,500 people lived in that city by 1999. In the 1970s, there was a great contrast between urban and rural living standards. Urbanites enjoyed basic services, such as drinking water and electricity in their homes, with schools and clinics in close proximity to their residences. By the late 1980s, those differences had substantially, but not entirely, disappeared.
Source:
While many countries in the Middle East thrive on their oil reserves, Jordan is an exception in this trend. The country's landlocked position brings with it scarce water supplies and an inadequate supply of natural resources (namely oil and coal). As such shortages often translate into problems such as debt, poverty and unemployment, Jordan relies on foreign aid from its oil-rich neighboring countries. Recently, Jordan has been trying harder to improve its living standards by engaging in economic reform. Since King Abdallah has taken throne, he has worked very closely with the IMF, been careful when implementing monetary policy, made considerable progress with privatization, and relaxed the trade regime just enough so that it has assured Jordan's membership in the World Trade Organization. All of these actions have helped Jordan become more productive and put it on the foreign investment map.
Source:
In the early 2000s, Jordan had an official unemployment rate of about 15%, although the unofficial rate was almost twice that. Poverty and a large foreign debt remain major problems. Less than 5% of the country's land is arable, and farm output is further limited by the small size of most farms, inefficient methods of tilling the soil, and inadequate irrigation. The principal crops are citrus and other fruits and berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, grains, lentils, and olives. Many Jordanians support themselves by raising sheep, goats, and poultry.
Source:
Jordan has a population of 5.9 million. 95% of Jordan's population are Arabs. Jordanian Arabs make 55% of the population and a large portion of the population (approximately 40%) are of Palestinian extraction,[8] who fled from Palestine to Transjordan and gained citizenship after the Arab-Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967, the remaining non-Arabs of the population are mainly Circassians, Chechens, Armenians (13th largest in the world) and Kurds, but have integrated into the Jordanian and Arab cultures in the country. Many Jordanians are ... of European origin
Source:
Is Jordan asking for more than it can deliver from the standpoint of producing a model of good democratic governance in the region based on a constitutional monarchy? Is such an expectation in the realm of the wishful thinking, or impossible? Despite the considerable difficulties, this paper believes that these expectations are indeed possible and realistic, though conditional upon several factors and circumstances, and contingent upon a phased process based on a well-developed ‘comprehensive vision’, some of whose elements are: First: The vision’s point of departure should rest on the premise that the vehicle for Jordan’s transformation into a model of democratic constitutional monarchy should be a sort of “National Project for the Jordanian State and Society”, the most important component of which would be a phased implementation framework. In other words, the project’s objective of a constitutional monarchy within two decades, based on a phased implementation process, should be clearly delineated from the very beginning. There should ... be a general consensus-seeking official, public and partisan debate around the project’s essence, nature and objectives. Such a consensus would generate an all-encompassing political momentum, propelled forward by a deep conviction on everyone’s part, that the country needs to emerge from the bottleneck.
Source:
Under King Abdullah, Jordan has undertaken a program of economic reform. The government has taken the initiative to gradually eliminate fuel subsidies, pass legislation targeting corruption, and begin tax reform. It has ... worked to liberalize trade, gaining access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000, signing an Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) in 2001, and securing the first bilateral Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and an Arab country in 2001. Since 2000, exports of light manufactured products, principally textiles and garments manufactured in the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) that enter the United States tariff and quota free, have been driving economic growth. Jordan exported $6.9 million in goods to the U.S. in 1997, when two-way trade was $395 million; according to the U.S. International Trade Commission, it exported $1.42 billion in 2006, with two-way trade at $2.07 billion.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Jordan