Newly appointed regional director for Mashreq Department visits Jordan

AMMAN — Following the recent appointment of Jean-Christophe Carret as Regional Director for the Mashreq Department (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran), a World Bank Group delegation visited Jordan on July 25 and 26. 

Carret succeeds Saroj Kumar Jha whose five-year term in the region comes to end this month. Jha will assume the role of World Bank’s Global Director, Water Global Practice in Washington DC, according to a WBG statement.

The delegation held several meetings with representatives of the Government of Jordan, and conducted visits to a number of World Bank supported programmes: The Emergency Cash Transfer Project implemented by the National Aid Fund, and the Youth, Technology and Jobs project at the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship. 

The delegation expressed its appreciation for the longstanding partnership between Jordan and the World Bank Group. 

Discussions highlighted priority programmes under implementation in support of economic reforms and private sector engagement, championing youth and women’s economic empowerment and job creation, enhancing social protection, agricultural development, health, education and municipal service delivery, and climate actions.

The delegation reiterated the World Bank Group’s continued commitment to strengthen its support to the people of Jordan, and to further assist the country on its path to a resilient and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said. 

The World Bank Group sees recovery efforts as an opportunity for continued reforms toward investment-led growth and to promote building-back a greener economy, concluded the statement.