His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday inaugurated three five-star hotels and the Aqaba Logistics Village, which seek to leverage the status of the port city as a tourist attraction and a regional logistics centre.

The hotels -- Kempinski, Radisson Blu and Mِvenpick Resort Tala Bay Aqaba -- will provide around 1,500 jobs. They will also help draw larger numbers of tourists to Aqaba, especially as the city has been selected as the Arab Tourism Capital for 2011.

The logistics village was implemented by the Kuwait-based Public Warehousing Company (Agility) and the Central Logistics Company (Kawar Group) on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis, at a cost of around JD50 million.

Also Thursday, the King met with several Jordanian and Arab investors in the city.

During the meeting, King Abdullah stressed the need to develop methods to draw investments into the city so as to increase economic growth and to initiate projects that can benefit the local community as well as the national economy.

He expressed pride in the accomplishments in Aqaba despite challenges and voiced confidence that planning and instititionalised work would support more growth and development in the Aqaba region.

During the meeting, also attended by His Royal Highness Prince Feisal, Royal Court Chief Nasser Lozi and the King's Adviser Ayman Safadi, businessmen highlighted the projects implemented so far in the port city, available investment opportunities and ways to overcome obstacles to further development.

Expressing satisfaction with the investment environment in Aqaba and its positive results, investors briefed the King on their views regarding ways to achieve progress in project execution.

Since its launch in 2001, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone has drawn $18 billion in industrial, service, hotel and education projects.