‘Deficit of hope is region’s greatest economic crisis’, says Jordan’s Finance minister at Davos

AMMAN — The greatest economic crisis facing the Middle East and North Africa is “a deficit of hope”, argued Minister of Finance Mohamad Al-Ississ, as the region’s young people have grown up in a perpetual battleground that fostered malaise. 

Al-Ississ participated in a high-level panel titled “The Middle East: Meeting Point or Battleground” alongside HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia; Fuad Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq; Kajsa Ollongren, Minister of Defence of the Netherlands; and Hans Grundberg, United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen. The panel explores the region’s measures to preserve stability, avenues for economic cooperation, and the value of preserving new dialogues and models.  

Al-Ississ challenged the premise of the panel, stating that the region is always placed in reference to global developments, instead of its own indigenous needs. 

When asked about political fragmentation, the minister argued that the biggest cause of political devise is economic frustrations at the level of household. “Micro-stability should be treated as prerequisite of macro stability not  a given byproduct” Al-Ississ Argued. 

Speaking on the rise of fragmentation, the Finance minister argued that the real divide is not solely between or within countries, but rather between those who theorise about policy on platforms and forums, and the people who are impacted by that policy on the ground. 

Jordan, according to Al-Ississ, has advanced many structural reforms to ensure its resilience in periods of uncertainty. Al-Ississ said that economic uncertainty offers governments the opportunity to revise the paradigms that do not serve the youth, arguing that governments should be enablers of individual ambitions instead of bulwarks against them.