Meeting to be held on 28 May
The government of Jordan will decide in late May or early June how to proceed with the New Aqaba Port project.
The Transport Ministry, Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC), Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (Aseza) and the Ministerial Economic Committee are expected to meet on 28 May to decide how to develop the port. Under consideration will be whether to continue with the development on the existing EPC basis or whether to revert to the initially preferred public-private partnership (PPP) approach, says Transport Minister Mohannad Qudah.
He was speaking on the sidelines of MEED’s Arabian World Construction Summit.
The New Aqaba Port scheme began as a build, operate, transfer (BOT) project, but negotiations for this failed twice. In 2009, ADC ended talks with the Kuwaiti-led Aqaba Gateway Group (AGG), which was the preferred bidder for construction work, after the parties could not reach an agreement over terms and conditions.
In July 2010, a consortium comprising France’s Bouygues, Bollore and Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) signed a memorandum of understanding with ADC to design, build, operate and finance the port as a PPP. In January, it emerged this agreement was void and that Amman would fund the project itself (MEED 27:1:11).
If the outcome of Saturday’s meeting is to proceed on a PPP basis, then the existing tender for marine works will have to be redone.
The government is keen to have the new port operational by the time the site of the existing port is handed over to UAE developer Al-Maabar in 2013. It is also keen to minimise its financial support for the construction of the new port.
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