Jordan Times
Monday, June 5, 2006
Welfare of Jordanians top priority — King
AMMAN (Petra) — His Majesty King Abdullah said
the welfare of Jordanians would remain the top priority of the country’s
development programmes.
“We are continuously working to alleviate the burdens on citizens resulting from
the harsh living conditions,” the King said in a wide-ranging interview with the
Saudi Arabia-based Iqtissadia newspaper on the occasion of the 60th anniversary
of Jordan’s independence.
The Monarch told the paper that much has been achieved at the various levels in
the past few years, adding the country is still on the path to implement
development programmes seeking to revive the national economy, reinforce
accomplishments and realise reform plans.
“In the past five years, we have worked on developing legislation and laws that
have attracted investors and facilitated their projects in the various sectors,”
King Abdullah said.
He called on Gulf businessmen to invest in the country’s privatisation scheme,
which is built on a policy designed to further involve the private sector to
take over projects and run them commercially.
The King said Jordan, as a small country with limited resources, has no choice
but to join the global economy and offer incentives to foreign investment as a
means of fostering the national economy and fighting poverty and unemployment.
He said the economy had won the confidence of investors to the extent that last
year’s terrorist attacks in Amman did not have any adverse effects on the flow
of investments into the country. On the contrary, he said, the country witnessed
increasing number of incoming investments.
The King described Jordan’s ties with Saudi Arabia as “strong and deep-rooted,”
saying they had developed remarkably in recent years and in all fields.