Letter to Faisal Fayez on the formation of national administrative units

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate,

Your Excellency Faisal Fayez, our esteemed prime minister,

May God bless and protect you,
Peace, God's mercy and His blessings upon you,

It gives me pleasure to extend to you and your colleagues the ministers my appreciation of your work and relentless effort in your continued endeavours to realise comprehensive development and complete the building of modern Jordan, a country that is progressive and advanced, that fulfils the ambitions of its sons and daughters and their aspirations to a free decent life and a bright future that is worthy of their strong will, sacrifices and solid belonging to this beloved country.

Since we firmly decided to reconsider the formation of the administrative units in the Kingdom to expand the base of popular participation in decision-making, arranging priorities and implementing plans and programmes related to our developmental march, we should emphasise that our aspiration for comprehensive development, whose positive outcomes are reflected on the standard of living in society and which provides means for decent living to every citizen, male or female, in this country, depends basically on how successful we are in facing economic and social challenges at this stage that coincides with several changes around us.

To realise our vision of a modern Jordan that meets the expectations of its citizens for progress and prosperity, all efforts should be unified and integrated in the private and public sectors, the Parliament, civil society organisations and the media, to draft a national agenda that embodies the vision of all of us and specifies strategic programmes and national policies whose realisation should be binding on successive governments.

National goals should be formulated and identified through thorough discussions that take into consideration the participation of all Jordanians within governmental and nongovernmental agencies, and the identification of the roles and responsibilities of all in the march for development, since these goals are going to identify several aspects of our march over the next ten years.

It is imperative here to emphasise that attaining the goals to which we aspire is not restricted to quality and competency in formulating them or precision and brilliance in defining them. More important than any of these is implementation, the attainment of results on the ground and the establishment of the principles and standards by which we measure success or failure. Naturally, this calls for the existence of a competent government apparatus that believes in team work, oriented towards achieving goals and result, one that is based on the principles of competence, worthiness and accountability. This apparatus in turn will be the driving force behind the different bodies working on translating national goals into tangible reality on the ground.

We believe that progress cannot be realised by distancing ourselves from past experiences. Rather, we should learn from past experiences, since the challenge we face is embodied in our capability to make use of accumulated experience and flexibility in responding to change, on condition that the real measure of progress is reflected in prosperity and a tangible improvement in the citizens' standard of living.

To advance this procedure, we will form a commission that will embody representatives of government, Parliament, civil society organisations, the private sector and the media. The commission will coordinate efforts, drafting a national agenda as a whole, approving its basic sub-topics, forming committees to list priorities for different sectors in all political, economic and social fields and supervising the work of these committees making sure that national priorities are harmonised in the context of available resources. All these efforts should be completed by September 2005.

While we look forward to building a strong society built on the principles of integrity and esteemed values emphasised by our tolerant sharia and our authentic Arab heritage, and to enhancing innovative work based on professionalism, competency and accountability, we aspire at the same time to formulate a national agenda that realises the dreams of our youth and guarantees the future of our children; one that enables them to develop their capabilities and utilise their potential in the service of their country and achieve decent living for every Jordanian, male or female.

I pray to God Almighty to protect you and grant us success in the service of our country and nation.

Peace, God’s mercy and His blessings upon you,

Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein
Amman, 9 February 2005