Planning minister, German official talk response to refugee crisis

AMMAN — Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury on Tuesday met with Germany’s coordinator to follow up on the London donor conference, Ambassador Rudiger König, and discussed the repercussions of the Syrian refugee crisis on Jordan. 

The two officials discussed the outcomes of last year’s London conference on Syria and arrangements for the international conference to be held by the EU in Brussels in spring, a statement from the Planning Ministry said. 

Headed by the EU, the UK, Germany, Norway, Kuwait, Qatar and the UN, the event will also cover the future of Syria and regional challenges.

Fakhoury stressed the importance of building on London conference, successes, focusing on the effects of aid on various sectors and on the improvement of services delivered to host communities, the statement said.

He urged the countries organising the Brussels conference to address the issue of sectors that are not supported by aid, stressing the importance of linking the outcomes of Brussels with the results of the G-7 and the G-20 summits in order to maintain the momentum through 2017. 

Fakhoury called for focusing on enhancing the resilience of host countries like Jordan by boosting economic growth, creating job opportunities, attracting investment and increasing exports. He noted the benefits for Jordan of the agreement made to simplify the rules of products’ origin in EU markets.

He also briefed the German ambassador on economic and social challenges Jordan faces as a host country and asserted the need for the international community to continue to support the Kingdom by increasing grants and implementing resilience projects on the basis of the Jordan Response Plan (JRP) 2017-2019.

The minister said the Kingdom has now reached the maximum limit of absorbing Syrian refugees, and urged the international community to maintain its support for Jordan.

Fakhoury stressed the depth of the Jordanian-German relations, praising German support to the Kingdom including its support throughout the refugee crisis.

For his part, the German official asserted his country’s support to the Kingdom, noting the common grounds between them in light of the upcoming conference.

Germany is considered as one of the main supporters of the Kingdom, providing 272.7 million euros in aid to fund priority projects, 56 million euros as technical support by the German Agency for International Development and the KfW Development Bank, and 70 million euros as concessional loans for development projects in 2016.

Germany also provided an exceptional 35-million-euro grant in December 2016 to support education, water and sanitation projects, raising the total amount of aid in 2016 to 308 million euros.