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Two news came form Aqaba this week, Irrelevant to each other, However, are similar in one thing, challenging the future of the city and the only port in Jordan.

Undoubtedly, the city have witnessed a massive positive change in the last ten year, I can not deny its one of few success stories we have recently, A narrow strip on the red sea was turned to an important port, tourism destination  and a modern city for Jordanians, at least its the only place in Jordan where drivers stop to allow pedestrian to cross.

In a firm step to tackle the high deficit in the budget, the government decided to cancel 50% of the custom taxes cut on cigarettes and liquors, which brings two important questions, 1st: Is the future of Aqaba as a  free trade zone threatened by government greed for scarce financial  resources? 2n questions is: was it reasonable to deprive the budget from valuable  funds all of the last 10 years?

The strategic dilemma is focused on how we can maintain Aqaba as a point of investment and tourism attraction while making money out of it. Moreover, the global crisis and the lack of new investments make the indirect benefits on the budget "such as employment opportunities and foreign currency income" very low. Therefore, the only way to get the fruit of the what the government has spent in the infrastructure is direct and clear tax system. A supportive point for this, is the new financial resources came to the budget after the new amendment of the taxation law. In other words, it was approved that well-planned taxes cannot be that harmful on investors. Absolutely, This puts the whole idea of the free zone under a big microscope,

Jordanians are familiar with confusions and contradictions in economy decisions. Many knows that the benefit of these custom cuts were transferred to individual by smuggling cigarettes and liquors to Amman and selling it with lower prices and make more money than Amman merchants. Unfortunately, the system was not efficent in tackling smugglers and the load was transfered to the security forces and the army to monitor the series of mountais and the endless deseret around Aqaba which put more burdens on their shoulders.

One the other side, Jordanians remember well the two Katyushas that were fired at Aqaba in 2005, killing one young soldier and causing a big disturbance at the time. The worst came few months later when terrorist who came from the point where Katyusha launchers sneak to Jordan, bombed three hotels in Amman. In other words, Aqaba rockets are a sing of a bigger security breach that might be happening at the moment somewhere else.

The two mysterious Grad rockets are clear reminders that Aqaba wont be allowed to grow without taking into consideration that it resides in a troubled zone. The only bet we can make here is on our security forces and I'm all hopes that they solve this mystery as soon as possible to give the needed confidence for everyone there to continue working in a fear-free environment..

Another balance should be maintained here; keeping the city open for the world, getting more visitors and transits while holding high security measure against unwelcome guests who are attracted by the complicated geopolitical nature of Aqaba.

To sum up, It seems we need the best of our minds and muscles to write a  successful sustainable development  story  in Aqaba. نثر الرمال ذهبا  is easy only on the Jordan TV.