Jordan Times
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Bilateral talks with
Bahrain conclude with hopes of increased trade
AMMAN (Petra) — His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday discussed bilateral ties
with Bahrain’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad Ben Mubarak Al Khalifa.
Sheikh Mohammad was in Jordan to co-chair the fourth session of the Joint
Jordan-Bahrain Higher Committee meetings, which concluded in Amman yesterday.
The King, who expressed keenness on furthering relations with Manama in various
fields, was briefed on the outcome of the meetings, which were chaired on the
Jordanian side by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ziad Fariz.
Also on Tuesday, the Bahraini official met separately with Prime Minister Marouf
Bakhit, who said both sides should work to increase the current trade volume,
which he described as “below expectation.”
Trade exchange between the two countries last year stood at $18 million, of
which Jordanian exports to the Gulf Kingdom constituted $5.5 million.
Fariz gave a similar statement in his address at the opening of the meetings
earlier in the day. He said that although the two countries have for decades
signed cooperation agreements in all fields, yet “many of these agreements are
not optimally utilised.”
Sheikh Mohammad noted in his remarks that stronger ties between the private
sectors in both countries would help to take bilateral ties to the next level.
He, in particular, referred to a proposal to establish a joint holding company.
Following the meetings, officials signed several memoranda of understanding (MoU)
and executive programmes, including an MoU between the Social Security
Corporation and Bahrain’s General Corporation for Social Security and another
between the Jordan Institute for Standards and Metrology and its Bahraini
counterpart.
The two sides also signed an MoU under which they will cooperate to apply the
Free Trade Agreement the two countries have with the United States.
Jordan signed the agreement with Washington in 2001, while the US deal with
Bahrain went into effect yesterday.