Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Economic pundits at a panel session held at the World Economic Forum (WEF) taking place at the Dead Sea, Saturday stressed the importance of forging ahead with strategic infrastructure projects and not to wait for regional stability to return completely.

During the session, dubbed "Infrastructure for Development," and attended by HRH Prince Faisal Ibn al Hussein and senior officials, they said individual countries should strictly set their priorities with well-defined goals so they can attract investment in infrastructure projects in such sectors as renewable energy, oil and gas, electricity generation and rail roads.

The panelists at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (WEF-MENA) emphasised the need for forging a deep public-private relationship to carry out infrastructure ventures, and not to depend solely on governments in this regard, noting the Jordanian model, to strengthen this relationship and frame it into the law.

They called for increased expenditure on infrastructure projects in Arab countries, where government spending on such ventures does not exceed five per cent of the GDP, and with poor statistical data, noting that countries that had achieved positive growth, namely China, spend 15 per cent of the GDP on such ventures.

"We look forward to strategic infrastructure partnerships in the areas of gas and oil, electricity grids and renewable energy at the regional level to achieve self-reliance and minimize overall risks," said Hani Mulki, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Chief Commissioner.

Mulki said the key problem with infrastructure projects is the private sector's reluctance to engage with them due to high risk, uncertainty and a tendency to pin the responsibility on the public sector, the major investor in these ventures at the regional level.

Gordon Brown, Chair of the WEF's Global Strategic Infrastructure Initiative, said the forum offers the opportunity for experts to put forth solutions to problems facing nations and stressed the need to elevate governments' institutional capacity.

Brown, a former British Prime Minister, referred to a limited number of infrastructure projects despite the global initiatives that support them, stressing the importance of private-public partnerships (PPP), particularly in the energy and transport fields, to develop these ventures and guarantee a productive environment and a level playing field.

He also called for exploiting financing via initiatives provided by international institutions, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank and to use sovereign guarantees away from political agendas.

Majid Jaafar, the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, stressed the regional dimension of infrastructure projects for achievement and alleviate the impact of unemployment, pointing out the need to revisit economic regulations whose roots lie in totalitarian backgrounds, particularly when it comes to energy support policies.