Transport ministry, IMF review priority projects

AMMAN — Transport Minister Anmar Khasawneh and Martin Cerisola, head of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) mission to Jordan, on Thursday reviewed the ministry’s priority projects it is planning to implement.

Khasawneh said that these schemes include the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project between Amman and Zarqa, smart applications project and restructuring the urban transport routes inside main cities (Irbid, Zarqa, Madaba and Salt), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He added that the ministry has already implemented procedures to modernise the heavy transport fleet and limit individual ownership through encouraging transporters to join companies, where new decisions have banned the individual ownership of trailer trucks.

The minister said that the ministry, in cooperation with the Land Transport Regulatory Commission, has adopted several procedures to reduce the total transport costs and commissions on transporting containers on the Amman-Aqaba road. 

IMF’s mission meetings in Amman are part of periodic visits of the organisation to discuss the financial reform programme being implemented in cooperation with the fund.

Mission members on Monday met with Finance Minister Ezzeddine Kanakrieh, where discussions also focused on the procedures aimed at enhancing the economic growth, maintaining certain levels of the deficit, as mentioned in the Budget Law, and reducing the public debt-to-GDP ratio.

The meeting on Monday, attended by other government officials, also reviewed the Kingdom’s economic indicators, including the growth rates in exports and tourism revenues.