Jordan Times
Thursday, January 3, 2008
$680m committed to
Jordan in 2007
AMMAN (JT) - The total amount of foreign assistance committed to Jordan by the
donor community and financing institutions in 2007 amounted to $680 million,
compared to $675 million in 2006.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali said in a press
statement yesterday that this assistance is “a result of the outstanding
relations that Jordan enjoys with the donor community… and progress achieved in
the implementation of various reforms, as well as Jordan’s commitment to pursue
these reform efforts”.
Al-Ali said committed assistance includes grants and soft loans that will be
utilised to help the government to move forward with the implementation of its
reform agenda as well as the implementation of key development projects in
various sectors, particularly water, health, education, tourism, energy and
local development, in addition to grants in the form of budget support.
The total grants committed by the US, the EU, Germany, Canada, Japan, China,
Italy, Korea, the World Bank and UN agencies reached $470 million, she said.
The planning minister also indicated that Jordan contracted an amount of $210
million in soft loans from the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Fund for
Economic and Social Development, the World Bank, the French Development Agency,
Germany, Italy and Switzerland to finance a number of priority projects.
Moreover, the statement added, technical assistance was also received from a
number of countries and donor organisations, particularly the Japan
International Cooperation Agency and the German Technical Cooperation, and
priority has been given to a number of areas such as water, environment, energy
and women in development, in addition to building the capacity of local
communities.
Furthermore, a large number of training courses and scholarship programmes were
made available to public sector employees within the framework of cultural and
scientific executive programmes signed with various countries and foreign
entities.
Al-Ali said that she has also negotiated and concluded a number of twinning
projects with EU member states to build institutional and administrative
capacities of several governmental institutions, including the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, Jordan Food and Drug
Administration, Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology, Jordan Customs,
the Audit Bureau, National Energy Research Centre and the Public Security
Directorate.