In
a week, Jordan meets European investors at the Dead Sea. Its strongest card
there is not the size of its project portfolio. It is the assurance that the
rules will still hold long after the contracts are signed.
On
19 November, more than 700 officials, investors and business leaders will
gather at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Centre at the Dead Sea for the
Jordan–EU Investment Conference.
The event is held under the patronage of His
Majesty King Abdullah II, with the participation of European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen. Jordan will arrive with more than 40 investment
opportunities and a portfolio worth more than $15 billion.
Yet
before any investor asks about returns, a quieter question will be on the
table. If I commit capital for twenty or thirty years, will the rules I sign
under still be the rules when I need them? A pumped-storage plant, a railway
line or a desalination pipeline cannot be packed up and moved when a regulation
changes. Its value rests on contracts, licences and tariffs that hold steady
for decades.
That
is why legal certainty is the card Jordan should play first. It is not a
technicality reserved for lawyers. It is a competitive advantage, and Jordan
holds more of it than its turbulent neighbourhood might suggest.
What
Jordan Brings to the Dead Sea
The
portfolio is broad and concrete. It spans 15 sectors and subsectors, with
energy and mining accounting for 10 projects valued at approximately $7.1
billion, according to reported Ministry of Investment estimates.
These include
the Al Mujib pumped-storage hydropower project, with a planned capacity of 450
megawatts and seven hours of storage, to be developed under a public-private
partnership.
Other opportunities include a 200-megawatt solar project supported
by a 100-megawatt battery storage system with four hours of storage, a proposed
100-megawatt wind farm, gas infrastructure in the Risha area, a natural gas
distribution network for Amman and Zarqa, and infrastructure to support the
development of green hydrogen and green ammonia in Aqaba.
Transport
projects are valued at approximately $3.56 billion, covering light rail and the
national railway. Four logistics projects account for around $1.61 billion and
include the Jaber Border Centre, Al Madouna Logistics Centre, Maan Dry Port and
Mafraq Development Zone.
Tourism contributes three projects valued at
approximately $1.08 billion, while water-sector opportunities are estimated at
$442 million. Industry and the circular economy account for a further nine
projects valued at around $265 million. Together, these sectors account for the
bulk of the portfolio.
The
diplomatic groundwork is equally solid. The EU–Jordan Association Agreement,
signed on 24 November 1997 and in force since 1 May 2002, established a
framework for the progressive liberalisation of trade between the two sides.
Advanced Status followed in 2010. On 29 January 2025, Jordan and the European
Union launched a Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership, supported by a €3
billion financial and investment package for 2025–2027, comprising grants,
concessional loans and additional investments.
On 8 January 2026, Amman hosted
the first-ever EU–Jordan Summit. The Dead Sea conference offers an opportunity
to translate this strengthened partnership into projects that are financed and
implemented.
The projects are the hand Jordan holds; legal certainty is what
convinces investors to stay at the table.
Rule
of Law and Legal Certainty: One Promise, Two Faces
The
two terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. The rule
of law is the foundation.
It means that power is exercised through law and
under law: the state is bound by the same rules it enforces, laws are public
and applied equally, and disputes are settled by independent courts rather than
by discretion.
Legal
certainty is what that foundation feels like to the person who must plan. It
asks whether the rules are clear, accessible and stable, whether they are
applied consistently, and whether they change only prospectively, with notice
and fair transition.
Put simply, legal certainty lets an investor know today
what the law will expect of them tomorrow, and trust that legitimate
expectations will be respected.
The
distinction matters. A country can have many laws on its books and still offer
little certainty if those laws shift abruptly or are applied unevenly. The rule
of law sets the principle; legal certainty turns it into something an investor
can model on a spreadsheet.
European investors know this well, because legal
certainty is itself a general principle of EU law. When Jordan speaks this
language at the Dead Sea, it speaks one its audience already trusts.
Why
Investors Put a Price on Certainty
Capital
does not fear risk; it prices it. Every unknown in a legal system becomes a
premium in the investor’s calculations: a higher return demanded, a shorter
loan tenor, a tougher guarantee, or a project quietly moved to another country.
Where rules are predictable, that premium shrinks, and the cost of capital
falls with it.
This
matters most for exactly the kind of projects Jordan will present. A
pumped-storage plant built under a public-private partnership earns its return
over decades, through power purchase agreements that must be honoured long
after the governments that signed them have changed.
A railway or a water
conveyor works the same way. For such assets, legal certainty is not a
background condition. It is part of the financial model.
The
benefit does not stop with investors. Lower financing costs mean cheaper
electricity, cheaper water and more affordable infrastructure for Jordanian
households and businesses. Legal certainty is therefore not a concession to
foreign capital. It is a saving that flows back to citizens.
The
Strengths Behind the Card
Jordan’s
first strength is continuity. In a region where governments and policies can
change overnight, the Kingdom has offered decades of institutional stability
under the Hashemite leadership. The January summit in Amman underscored the
EU’s view of Jordan as a stable partner in a turbulent region, and that
reputation is an asset few neighbours can match.
The
second is a modern legal toolkit. The Investment Environment Law of 2022 sets
out investor rights and guarantees in a single framework.
The Arbitration Law
of 2001 gives commercial disputes a recognised path, and Jordan has been a
party to the New York Convention on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards
since 1979 and a member of the ICSID system for investor-state disputes. An
investor in Jordan therefore knows not only what the rules are, but also how a
dispute will be resolved and enforced.
The
third is monetary predictability. The Jordanian dinar has been pegged to the US
dollar since 1995, removing a layer of currency risk that complicates long-term
planning in many emerging markets.
The
fourth is market access. Jordanian producers enjoy preferential entry to the EU
under the Association Agreement, to the United States under a free trade
agreement, and to Arab markets through regional arrangements.
The EU’s
simplified rules of origin cut the required local content for many products
from 60 per cent to 30 per cent, and both sides agreed at the January summit to
help Jordanian firms make fuller use of them.
The
fifth is geography and resources. Jordan sits at the crossroads of the Levant,
Iraq and the Gulf, with Aqaba as its gateway to the Red Sea. Abundant sun and
wind make clean energy a natural export, and an educated, multilingual
workforce gives investors the talent to run what they build.
Together with the
Economic Modernisation Vision, these strengths give the Dead Sea portfolio a
credible home.
How
to Play the Card
A
strong card wins only when it is played well, and strengths persuade only when
they are shown, not asserted. At the Dead Sea, Jordan can turn legal certainty
from a slogan into a set of commitments investors can read in the term sheet.
Jordan
can build on what it already offers by providing clear change-in-law protection
in its public-private partnership contracts, so that investors know in advance
how a future regulatory shift will be handled.
It can make international
arbitration, with a defined seat and enforceable awards, the standard dispute
route for major projects. It can publish licensing steps and timelines for each
flagship project, building on the single-window approach already in place.
And
it can commit to consulting the market before regulatory changes take effect,
with fair transition periods and no retroactive burdens.
None
of this requires new principles. It asks Jordan to package what it already has
and to showcase it with confidence. For European investors weighing several
destinations, that confidence may well be the deciding factor.
Leading
With Certainty
More
than $15 billion in opportunities on offer at the Dead Sea will compete for
capital with projects across the Mediterranean, the Gulf and beyond. Many of
those destinations can match Jordan on sunshine, incentives or location. Fewer
can match it on stability, a credible legal framework and a long record of
honouring its commitments.
That
is the card Jordan should lead with when it enters the conference hall on 19
November. Projects attract attention, but certainty attracts capital that
stays. If Jordan presents the rule of law as its foundation and legal certainty
as its promise, Europe will see more than a portfolio.
It will see a place
where its investments are safe to grow, because the rules hold.
