Jordan, German Development Bank sign agreements worth 89m euros

AMMAN — The government and the German Development Bank (KfW) on Tuesday signed four development aid agreements with a total value of 89 million euros, including 15 million euros in grants and 74 million euros in soft loans.

According to a Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation statement, cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the agreements are intended to support priority development projects in the water and environment sectors.

Planning Minister Nasser Shraideh and KfW Country Director Mark Schwiete signed a grant agreement valuing 14 million euros to invest in the waste management project, in cooperation with the Greater Amman Municipality, and a one-million-euro grant agreement to finance other measures of the project.

The two sides also signed a soft loan agreement to finance the seventh phase of the water resources administration programme. The programme aims to improve the wastewater network in Madaba and treat surface and ground water at the Al Heidan and Al Waleh dams to provide water for Madaba and southern Amman areas.

The agreement also includes an initiative to improve the water supply in the Wadi Al Aqeb area in Mafraq. This initiative will include job opportunities for youth as part of the government’s economic stimulation plans.

The officials signed another soft loan agreement of 24 million euros to finance the third phase of the “climate change in the water sector” project, to complete the ongoing efforts to improve the quality of irrigation water supply and its distribution throughout the Jordan Valley.

Shraideh expressed the government’s appreciation of the German government, noting that Germany is one of the Kingdom’s most important partners in the development sector. The minister noted how German assistance supports vital sectors, such as education, water and wastewater.

During the annual Jordanian-German talks in Amman last October, the German government pledged development aid worth a total of 394.3 million euros in the form of grants, technical assistance and soft loans to finance development projects and schemes under the Jordan Response Plan to the Syrian Crisis.