Iraq’s capital flight from Jordan due to residency problems

AMMAN / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi businessmen and investors in Jordan blamed humble Iraqi investments in the Hashemite kingdom on administrative problems related to residency, visas and temporary passports, noting the frail investments do not reflect the large Iraqi presence in the country. Jordan, during the past few years, has seen large hoards of Iraqis, mostly investors, emigrating out of the country, which brought the kingdom to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in investments that had been once expected to flow and industrial projects to provide jobs for many Jordanians to curb high unemployment rates there. In addition to the tough residency procedures and the Jordanian passports given to Iraqis, not recognized by many Arab countries, practices by the banking sector, which fell short of meeting demands for letters of credits to some Iraqi merchants, also played a role in Iraqi businessmen’s flight out of Jordan. Iraq’s investors who left Jordan, however, were highly welcomed by Lebanese and Gulf banks that facilitated their work and investments. “The volume of Iraqi investments in Jordan is still modest as a result of some administrative procedures regarding residency and passports,” Iraqi businessman Ammar al-Saadi told IraqiNews.com news agency. Iraqi investors ranked first in the real-estate trading during the first quarter of this year with 468, followed by Kuwaitis with 182 and Saudis with 82. “Residency for Iraqi investors obtaining Jordanian passports with five years is not applicable to their offspring who exceeded the age of 18 as they are required to renew their residency status on an annual basis,” said Saadi. There are about more than 70,000 major Iraqi businessmen and investors in Jordan’s private sector, residing in the kingdom, according to the estimations of the Iraqi Business Council in Amman. “There are some 200,000 Iraqis residing in Jordan, half of them are businessmen, of whom 70-80% are private-sector investors,” Saadi noted. Another Iraqi investor, who did not want his name mentioned, said that although there are royal instructions to remove any obstacles facing investors, the application of these directives by employees “is a different story”. Moreover, Qays al-Jaafari, another Iraqi investor, told IraqiNews.com that Iraqi investors obtain Jordanian passports under certain terms and a set volume of investments. “Iraqi investors during the past few years could get a passport through the interior ministry under certain conditions and requirements, although this passport had not been recognized by European countries until the year 2005,” said Jaafari. He noted that the new passport is issued by virtue of a decision from the cabinet and this one is more recognized compared to the old one. AmR (I) 148