His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and 10 Heads of State to Launch the Group of 11/Lower-Middle Income Countries Initiative

(New York, NY, September 16, 2006) – A one-day summit, hosted by His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan on September 20 in New York, will bring together 11 countries to officially launch a forum for cooperation and knowledge-sharing among nine Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMICs), in addition to Croatia and Pakistan.

Meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly 61st Session, the Group of Eleven (G11), which includes Croatia, Ecuador, Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, will discuss ways to create a shared platform for growth and development and to enhance the role of participating countries in the global trade and investment arena.

Using their existing commonalities as a basis for discussion, participants will seek to build partnerships within the group to deliver benefits for their people.

King Abdullah will deliver the keynote address which will underscore the necessity of mobilizing international support to faciliate the acceleration of economic growth in the G11 countries.

He will also shed light on the common challenges facing these countries, namely poverty, unemployment, debt, fluctuating energy prices and regional instability.

More than a quarter of the world’s people live in lower-middle income countries. The G11 hopes to attract more countries of the same category to join the initiative in the future.

The next G11 summit will be held in May 2007 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea, Jordan.