THE Economic and Social Council was established in 2009 in Jordan to serve as a consultative commission on economic and social issues. As such, the council was supposed to conduct dialogue with the private sector, labour unions, the civil society and government representatives. The council was expected to be a venue for dialogue on national economic and social policies among the various stakeholders, but it fell short of such a mission.

Still relatively young, this committee began to make its mission known to the public in a low-key manner; much more is expected from it if it hopes to be able to get the economy out of its current depression and put it in high gear. A long list of measures could be recommended to energise the council, starting with the restructuring of its membership, with a view to making it more dynamic.

The council also needs to identify the bottlenecks in the national economy and the manner in which to cut down state expenditure without hurting the most vulnerable groups of citizens. The people want straight talk on why the country still runs a huge budget deficit and why so little has been done to ration public expenditure. The council should be able to lend support in that direction.

The country needs to gain business and consumer confidence so that investment from local and external parties can be attracted. The council might help with best practice and close monitoring. And finally, the public wants answers to the big corruption files that concerned authorities seem to have placed on the back burner. The council could contribute towards elucidating this issue as well. The commission, in short, could be a game changer once it decides to aggressively pursue its mandate.—(Sept 24)