With five years under its belt and $2 billion tallied in investments, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) is pulling out all the stops to bring that figure to $6 billion by 2010, the target originally set for 2020.



At Thursday's celebrations attended by His Majesty King Abdullah to mark the fifth anniversary of declaring Aqaba a duty free zone, ASEZA Chief Commissioner Nader Dahabi said the achievements of the first five years of a 20-year plan “exceeded all expectations” and proved the sceptics wrong.



He said 2005 brought a 90 per cent rise in the number of cruise ships docking at Aqaba, with an average of 1,000 tourists onboard. In addition, he said the number of tourists to the coastal city grew by 21 per cent last year and was double the number recorded in 2001.



The number of air passengers in 2005 rose 13 per cent over 2004 figures, and air cargo soared 187 per cent.



Speakers at Thursday's event included Saraya Aqaba's Vice Chairman Ali Kolaghassi, who renewed his company's support for Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), and Saraya General Manager, Khalid Wazani, a key architect of the Aqaba enterprise when he was head of the Royal Court's Economic Department. Wazani also served as director general of the Social Security Corporation, which is a partner in many large-scale projects in Aqaba.



He expected that the area and Jordan in general will start reaping the fruits of ASEZ's success following a period of “investment injection” between 2006 and 2009.

The Jordan Times