Address by Hon'ble Vice Minister from Iran

HIS EXCLLENCY MR. SHEHADAH ABU HDAIB ; DIRECTOR GENERAL –THE HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPKMENT CORPORATION - JORDAN

ADDRESSING THE Ministers of Housing and Urban Development of Asia Pacific countries in Amman 27-28/10/2007

It is great honor to me to be welcoming your good selves today in Amman as the director General of The Housing and Urban Development Corporation; HUDC, which I am privileged to be in as a member of the executive team working for the development of our country under the reign of HIS Majesty King Abdullah the Second.

HUDC is the government sole agency responsible for housing and urban sectors . It’s Board of Directors is headed by the Minister of Public Works and Housing and was given mandate to provide access to affordable housing,… to study and upgrade ill serviced communities….. and to recommend national housing policies to the government.

HUDC (established in 1965) started by providing built housing units to the low-income citizens then took the role of the enabler by providing serviced small plots to the targeted groups. Upgrading ill serviced urban pockets started in the early eighties through different projects mainly funded by the World Bank, and as such was granted a couple of International awards for the East Wehdat upgrading project in the capital Amman.

Since establishment, HUDC has provided shelter to more than 42 thousand households all over the country, in addition to the public buildings provided within it’s projects in accordance with the needs of the inhabitants, such as schools, health centers, community buildings, commercial centers.. etc.

Though HUDC is a government agency, however it’s projects are self-financed, where market priced units subsidies beneficiary low cost housing units targeting low income groups, making our rates more reachable by our groups.

In the late nineties, the government of Jordan adopted the social productivity program whereby the community infrastructure program component was HUDC’s responsibility. The project focused on improving the physical elements and the provision of the appropriate infrastructure services to the sites and camps. The program targeted the poor communities to enhance the quality of life and to increase productivity through social and economic interventions as well as physical.

On the other hand ,The National Housing Strategy; ratified in 1989, and the reform of the housing sector stressed on the fact that the government through HUDC should be mainly the enabler; that is to enable the citizens to access affordable housing. As such and realizing its role to meet the increasing housing need and understanding the role of the private sector as a partner in development, HUDC adopted and initiated the public-private partnership scheme, whereby private developers in the sector were invited to take a better role in the provision of housing to the low income groups, while HUDC acts as a facilitator of the scheme.

Honorable Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

The Housing Sector is a key component of the urban economy. Combining the housing investment and housing services, the share to economy is relatively high. As an asset, housing is even more important; it is a major motivation for household saving and significantly influences households’ consumption. In addition, it affects inflation, financial depth, labor mobility and balance of payments as well as government budgets through taxes and subsidies.

As such, many factors changed the concepts of the housing and land sectors; demand through the natural population growth, increase of demand from expatriates living in Jordan, government policies, the political- economic environment such as the financial bank liquidity, interest rates and institutional organization .

Understanding the continuous and pleading need to housing ,HUDC, as the government arm to housing issues, has worked on several initiatives aiming at reaching out to all population…some of these projects are :

• Pilot Projects; whereby housing core units were built to house the bedwins in two areas while training the locals to participate in the construction, hitting two targets ; shelter and vocational training…
• Housing for the poor Royal grant; whereby around 937 houses were built by the ministry and governorates to house the very needy.
• Limited Low income housing – Royal grant… whereby HUDC is executing site and services projects on government land as a cost subsidy solution to the low income groups.
• Government Employees Housing – Royal grant; His Majesty enforced the fact that easing the living conditions of government employees is the key to profound excellence and productivity. Hence , as a government we are now working on the agenda and action plan to produce around (33) thousand housing units within the coming few years on government owned land. In this context, investors in the fields of housing are invited to participate in this national effort to fulfill HIS Majesty's vision.

Honorable guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Jordan has participated in the first conference held in Delhi in 2006 and was also at the 1st bureau meeting which was held in Nairobi April 2007. It was great honor to me to participate with my respective colleagues to share experience and concern to benefit our countries and population. We are as such , very keen to unite efforts with all our fellow countries of the world… to follow the commitments of the millennium goals perpetrated by our leadership…. To obligate ourselves with all international agendas and statements… We are reaffirming our continuous fostering of the Delhi Declaration which we are proud to have participated in founding….

Thank you your excellencies for allowing me to brief you on our activities, wishing you all the success in your intentions to improve living conditions to our societies and in the best aspired ways.

Welcome again to Jordan.. I wish you all a beautiful memorable stay…

والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته