Fakhoury meets with top officials in Brussels

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury called on the international community to provide more support to Jordan to help it deal with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis and implement the commitments made to host about 1.3 million Syrians.

The remarks came during Fakhoury's meetings with officials from the EU, the European Commission, the UK, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands and the World Bank at the Brussels conference, a Planning Ministry statement said on Saturday. 

Held on Tuesday and Wednesday, the conference discussed the future of Syria and the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees. 

Fakhoury called on Europe to provide more funding  to support the budget, as well as grants and soft loans to finance priority development projects. 

Along with additional grants to support the Jordan Response Plan 2017-2019, further funding would assist with capital expenditure projects in communities that host refugees, the minister said. 

He also called for intensifying efforts to enable the Kingdom to benefit from the simplification of rules of origin agreement and to focus on success stories of companies that have reached the European market.

Fakhoury briefed his European partners on projects, which identified 80 Jordanian factories as potential key exporters to the EU. Six out of 21 factories are currently being targeted to enable their products to reach the European market.

Referring to the decision to simplify the rules of origin, Fakhoury expressed the Kingdom’s preparedness to facilitate networking with European suppliers and stressed the role of the private sector and chambers of industry in this regard, noting the importance of the Jordanian-EU investment and business conference, due to be held in May.

In his meeting with Japanese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Kentaro Sonoura, the planning minister stressed Japan’s importance as a partner and expressed appreciation for Japan’s continued support for the Kingdom.

During the meeting with the deputy director of the Middle East and Central Asia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Adnan Mazari, the two sides discussed cooperation between Jordan and the fund.

The fund’s official praised Jordan’s reforms and stressed that the IMF understands the burdens borne by the Kingdom and their continued negative impact on economic growth.

Fakhoury also met with the Netherlands’ Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and British Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel.