từ khảo sát trong nước vào năm 1989. Nhập khẩu dầu đã tiếp tục là một cống lớn về kinh tế và về tiền tệ nước ngoài. Nguồn tài nguyên chủ yếu của Jordan là người dân. Chính phủ đã đầu tư đáng kể trong việc hình thành nguồn nhân lực. | 92 The Future Security Environment in the Middle East from prospecting in the country in 1989. Oil imports have continued to be a major drain on the economy and on foreign currency. Jordan s principal resource is its people. The government has made substantial investments in human capital formation. Health conditions in the country are among the best in the region government figures place Jordan s primary over 95 percent and secondary 65 percent enrollment rates at among the highest in the Arab Adult literacy today is one of the highest in the region about 94 percent for men and 80 percent for women. Over the past ten years school enrollment rates have grown by nearly 4 percent a year. Unfortunately population growth threatens to undermine these achievements. Jordan s population was estimated at 3 453 000 in 1990 prior to the influx of 200 000 to 300 000 expatriates who returned from Kuwait in the wake of the Iraqi invasion. The strategy of exporting human capital temporarily collapsed. The current 3 percent birth rate represents a decline from percent a decade ago. The average number of children per mother total fertility rate has declined from in 1976 to in 1992 to percent in 2000. The population in 2000 was over 5 million. Most alarmingly the labor force is projected to grow by nearly 5 percent per year over the next ten years. Quality problems in the educational system raise expectations without providing truly competitive skills in international comparative perspective. The problem appears to be especially acute at the university level where a combination of rising enrollments and declining expenditures has seriously jeopardized educational quality. The result is increasing pressure on government educational budgets high unemployment among graduates and mounting frustration. This situation poses a serious challenge to political stability and is a problem in all countries of the region. The Jordanian labor market combines high levels of
