Jordan received $1.54 billion in foreign aid in January-July period of 2022 — Planning Ministry

AMMAN — The value of foreign aid to Jordan since the beginning of this year until the end of July amounted to $1.54 billion in grants and soft loans, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation said on Tuesday. 

Grants constituted $187.5 million of the total amount of foreign aid, while soft loans stood at a value of $1.1 billion to support Jordanian developmental projects, infrastructure and economy, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Grants directed to support Jordan within its response plan to the Syrian crisis amounted to $252.5 million. 

Until the end of July of this year, 70 per cent of foreign aid volume was directed to support the implementation of development programmes and projects included in the General Budget Law, while the rest of the other programmes and projects are implemented by donors and funders, under the direct supervision of ministries and beneficiary institutions. 

The social protection sector ranked first, accounting for 45.7 per cent of the foreign aid, followed by the economic development sector which recorded 32.7 per cent.

The employment sector ranked third with 8.7 per cent, while the infrastructure sector constituted 7.6 per cent, while agriculture and food security ranked last with 2.5 per cent, the ministry added. 

In 2022, the ministry succeeded in securing additional grants worth $447 million to implement the National Water Carrier Project (Aqaba-Amman desalination and water transport project), in addition to obtaining pledges of $1.4 billion in soft loans to the government.

The ministry also works to mobilise necessary funding for projects of high priority, such as food security, to support Jordan’s reserves of strategic basic commodities such as wheat and barley and increase storage capacities.

The ministry seeks to maintain the rate of international economic aid provided to the Kingdom for the year 2022 as last year with more than $4 billion directed to priority sectors. 

According to the ministry, the US grant allocated to support Jordan’s general budget will be transferred by the end of 2022.