In today's world, economic sovereignty no longer means producing everything a country consumes or isolating itself from global trade. That notion has long been obsolete. Instead, economic sovereignty has come to represent something far more profound: a nation's ability to make its own economic decisions freely, secure its strategic needs, and maintain resilience in the face of external shocks while continuing to benefit from integration into the global economy.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, disruptions to global supply chains, conflicts across the Middle East, and the growing technological rivalry between the United States and China have all demonstrated that the world's most successful economies are not those that have closed themselves off, but those that have built resilience and adaptability. As a result, concepts such as technological sovereignty, strategic autonomy and supply-chain resilience have become central pillars of economic policy across the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea and many other economies.

 

The European Union, for example, now advocates "Open Strategic Autonomy", a strategy that seeks to preserve the benefits of an open economy while reducing excessive dependence on any single supplier, market or technology. Likewise, South Korea and Singapore did not pursue self-sufficiency; rather, they invested in knowledge, technology and high-value-added industries—the true foundations of economic sovereignty in the twenty-first century.

 

This concept is particularly relevant to Jordan. The Kingdom enjoys political stability and strong institutions, yet it also faces structural challenges, including limited natural resources, dependence on imported energy, severe water scarcity, high public debt and a relatively narrow productive base compared with more industrialised economies.

 

Economic sovereignty in Jordan, therefore, should not be understood as disengagement from the global economy. Rather, it should mean strengthening Jordan's capacity to make independent economic decisions, diversify its sources of income, reduce strategic vulnerabilities, and enhance productivity and competitiveness.

 

Perhaps the greatest gap in Jordan's economic policy debate today is the absence of an objective tool to measure our progress towards this goal. We regularly monitor economic growth, inflation, unemployment and public debt, yet we have no systematic way of measuring economic sovereignty itself.

 

It is therefore time to develop a Jordan Economic Sovereignty Index (JESI)—a national composite index published annually to assess the strength of Jordan's economy and its capacity to withstand external risks, much as countries measure competitiveness, innovation and human development. International research increasingly recognises composite indicators as essential instruments for performance evaluation, evidence-based policymaking and long-term strategic planning.

 

Such an index could be built around six principal pillars.

 

The first would be Production Sovereignty, encompassing the contribution of manufacturing to GDP, industrial value added, the share of high-technology exports and the Economic Complexity Index, which measures the diversity and sophistication of a country's export basket.

 

The second pillar would be Financial Sovereignty, covering public and external debt, foreign exchange reserves, fiscal balance and the economy's ability to finance investment through domestic resources.

 

The third would be Trade Sovereignty, measuring export-market diversification, dependence on individual trading partners, supply-chain resilience and the ability to sustain trade flows during periods of global disruption.

 

The fourth pillar would be Technological Sovereignty, now one of the defining elements of national economic strength. It would include expenditure on research and development, patent generation, innovation performance and the country's capacity to develop, absorb and transfer technology. Investment in knowledge and innovation remains the principal engine of productivity growth and long-term economic development.

 

The fifth pillar would focus on Strategic Resource Sovereignty, incorporating food security, energy security and water security, all of which have become as important to national resilience as traditional fiscal indicators.

 

Finally, the sixth pillar would measure Human Capital Sovereignty, including educational quality, labour productivity, workforce skills and innovation capacity. No economy can truly control its own destiny without a highly skilled and globally competitive workforce.

 

Publishing such an index annually would provide policymakers with a practical tool for assessing genuine progress and directing reforms towards areas where they are most urgently needed. It would also enable meaningful comparisons between Jordan and countries that have successfully transformed their economies, such as Singapore, South Korea, Estonia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, rather than relying solely on comparisons of GDP growth or unemployment rates.

 

Economic sovereignty is neither a political slogan nor a call for economic isolation. It is the capacity of a nation to generate knowledge, deepen its industrial base, diversify its economy, master technology, secure its strategic needs and remain actively integrated into the global economy from a position of strength rather than dependence.

 

Jordan, under the Economic Modernisation Vision and the reforms currently underway, has a genuine opportunity to move beyond managing challenges towards building a more sovereign, more resilient and more competitive economy. Yet that journey begins with measuring what truly matters. Establishing a Jordan Economic Sovereignty Index is therefore not an academic luxury;

 

The writer is a Former Jordanian Minister of State for Economic Affairs.