‘10,000 jobs available for Jordanians at Dead Sea corniche project’

AMMAN — Around 10,000 job opportunities are currently on offer to Jordanians at the Dead Sea, the Jordan Development Zones (JDZ) said on Monday.

The Dead Sea’s Sweimeh Bay, forecast to start operating in 2018, will host at least 60 investment projects, according to Hamzah Haj Hassan, the JDZ’s director general.

According to Haj Hassan, the law on development zones requires employers to offer at least 70 per cent of job opportunities to Jordanians.

Around 5,000 opportunities will be available at the hotels, while some 2,700 other job offers are in the retail section, located on an area of 140,000 square metres. 

Job seekers can also apply for vacancies in the water parks, where 300 opportunities will be provided, Haj Hassan said, adding that public parks and beach areas will provide some 600 other job offers. 

The official said job-hunters with degrees in hospitality, business and foreign languages are needed for the project, adding that there is no specific age group for applicants.

He said the first floor of the “corniche” project will contain shops, supermarkets and coffee shops, while other plots and floors include hotels, resorts, two water parks, two public beaches and an auditorium with a capacity of 2,000 people.

The JDZ is currently developing the infrastructure of the land to prepare for investments, with an initial amount of 32 investments out of 60, which were priced at around $32 million, Haj Hassan told The Jordan Times. 

The project, the official said, will be built on eight plots of land close to the Holiday Inn near the northern part of the Dead Sea area, three of which are Qatari investments.

The total investment size of the project will stand at around $500 million, he said, adding that it depends on the investment of businesspeople.

The space provided for the project is around 240 dunums, while the total area of the corniche is nearly 1,200 dunums, he said. 

The investment hub will become a key tourist attraction in the region, “just like Dubai’s Jumeirah ‘The Walk’ Corniche,” Haj Hassan added.