Date: 3 May 2006
Title: His Majesty King Abdullah's Letter to Amman Mayor Mr. Omar Maani on a New Amman City Development Plan

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

I send my greetings to you personally and to your esteemed team at the GAM, along with my sincere appreciation for the hard work, discipline and dedication you have all displayed in caring for and safeguarding our beloved Amman.

In recent years, and as is evident for all to see, our city has witnessed an accelerated rate of growth and expansion. This has been a result of determined efforts and focused policies that have attracted investment and have been served by a regional economic boom. It has also been a result of the strategic location, political stability, safety, a qualified and highly skilled workforce, as well as the hospitable environment and natural beauty that our dear city has long enjoyed.

It is crucial that we all continue to do our utmost to ensure that our beloved city will continue to be a magnet for pioneering development projects and a fertile ground in which innovative ideas can take root and blossom. It is also incumbent on us to ensure that Amman, the Capital of Agreement and Reconciliation, maintains its heritage as a city that embraces innovators and intellectuals, and that is rich in intellectual diversity and multiplicity of its inhabitants' origins, under which it will flourish and gain strength, reaffirming its prominent status as a highly attractive location to live, work and visit.

Our leading challenge is to strike the right balance that encourages the growth, development and modernization of our city on the one hand, while preserving the aesthetic quality, culture, tradition and charm that uniquely characterize and differentiate our city. As we continue to ensure the inflow of investment, growth and progress of our country, we must ensure that this does not compromise, but, in fact, improves on the quality of life for our people. Amman must continue to embrace its families, young and old, ensuring a clean, safe, quiet and peaceful atmosphere in which to live, work and socialize in.

To achieve the optimum balance of healthy growth and quality living, flourishing expansion and organized districts, 21st century conveniences and traditional character, we must embark on a serious and comprehensive project of city planning for Amman.

This project will examine the opportunities as well as the constraints inherent in our city, it will respect its unique qualities and traditions, account for the needs of its inhabitants, while at the same time forecasting for its growth in a well-studied and well-planned manner. It will ensure that respect for our environment and nature are an intrinsic element of everything we do, that our lands are zoned according to a clear and well-considered master plan, that projects are granted upon straightforward fulfillment of high standards but realistic specifications, that lands are allotted according to a well-defined and transparent criterion, and that an infrastructure that accommodates the latest technologies permeates the entire city.

I ask you to start assembling a team that will commence work on this highly significant endeavor, emphasizing that expertise and professional experience are the only criteria upon which your choices should be made. I would also like you to invite experts from all over the world to contribute to this effort, as the sharing of successes and failures that they have witnessed in other cities can be of tremendous value to us.

I, along with my fellow Jordanians, will look forward to seeing the outcome of this effort. Although the GAM will lead us along the path of cherishing and nurturing our Amman, it is the responsibility and duty of each and every citizen to lovingly navigate that path. We all must stand behind you in caring for our dear city. My hope is that this effort will provide a template and example that can be replicated and evolved in our other cherished cities in Jordan so that our country will continue to grow and flourish and itself be an example for others in the region and the world.

Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein
Amman,
5 Rabi' Al Thani 1427 Hijri
3 May 2006