Dr. Khalid Al Wazani, CEO of Darat Jordan Holdings to participate in the Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2010 Conference

Dr. Khalid Al Wazani, CEO of Darat Jordan Holdings will be participating in a session on Levant countries, focusing on Jordan’s business environment.  He says: “Jordan’s attractiveness to investment stood the test of time.  We were less affected by the crisis and we still enjoy our strengths.  On the macro economic level, foreign reserves for example went up to 8306 million USD in 2009 from 2800 in 2008, indicating an increasing trust in our systems, when investors are skeptic about most of the financial systems elsewhere.  Our security and political stability, state-of-the art ICT infrastructure (78% mobile penetration, 100% internet access, and a massive growth in wireless networks), the strategic location, our talented population (91% literacy rate- highest in the middle east, over 200,000 university students in 25 Jordanian universities), a favorable business environment (ranked top six of the best seventeen countries with regard to doing business in the middle east region- Doing Business Report, World Bank), are some examples of Jordan’s potentials.

Dr. Al Wazani will be also participating in a session about affordable housing, he will be giving insight on the importance of this business now with the end of the financial crisis more than anytime before.  He says: “now, that the crisis is witnessing its last days, and more than ever, both the individual, real-estate developer, and the financial bodies got their lessons learnt right.  The market needs were identified in clearer manner after the crisis, the risk the individual is willing to take has of course decreased, and the banks are looking for less risky and more viable clients.  Given these realistic mind-sets, I believe that affordable housing will witness greater demand.  The mentality of the individual has changed towards less luxury and consumption to more necessary and practical goods.  In addition, being a young society as Arabs are, the newly married couples are always in search for buying affordable houses rather than renting.  I believe time has come for banks to offer better loans, with longer maturities, and zero or minimal down payments, following leasing approaches similar to Islamic Ijarah.  Banks will still be making profits, depending on the high demand”