'Government spent 92% of Gulf grant allocations for 2014'

AMMAN — Jordan spent 92 per cent of the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) grant amount allocated for 2014, compared with 86 per cent in 2013, the Planning Ministry said Sunday.

Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif said allocations for projects funded by the grant under the 2014 budget stood at around JD708 million, while some JD650 million were spent on projects last year.

In 2011, the GCC allocated $5 billion (around JD3.6 billion) to finance development projects in Jordan during the 2012-2016 period, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar paying $1.25 billion each.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, the minister said agreements were signed for projects worth around $2.9 billion to be funded by the GCC grant between 2012 and 2014, of which nine funding agreements worth $1.236 billion were from the Kuwaiti share.

Ten projects valued at $898 million were funded by the Saudi grant in the period in question, while a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2013 to fund ventures through the UAE grant at a total cost of $783 million.

Another memo was signed with the Qatari government in September 2012.

The total amount of money withdrawn from the grant between 2012 and 2014 amounted to some JD773 million (around $1.1 billion), of which around JD244 million is from Saudi Arabia’s share, JD344 million from the Kuwaiti grant and JD184 million from the UAE share.

Around JD17.09 million went to implement the Azraq-Omari road, and JD17.73 million was used to fund an extension to the King Hussein Cancer Centre.

Saif noted that some JD500.62 million from the GCC grant has been allocated to implement 75 projects in 2015.

He said the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development has agreed to increase the grant designated for education projects by JD7.09 million, adding that five agreements were signed with the Saudi Development Fund at a value of JD125 million to finance schemes in the health sector.