Saudi Arabia ‘committed to invest billions in Jordan’ — report

AMMAN — The joint coordination council Jordan and Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday “will oversee investments by the Saudi Public Investment Fund,” according to a report by Bloomberg.

Bassem Awadallah, King’s special envoy to Saudi Arabia, told Bloomberg in a phone interview from Riyadh that the envisioned investments “will be the largest in Jordan in decades” and "will unblock billions of dollars" for the Kingdom.

Agreements on nuclear power cooperation and on uranium extraction are also expected to follow, he said.

The coordination council, which will meet alternately in Amman and Riyadh, will decide what to invest and in which sector, but the Aqaba Special Economic Zone is likely to receive a good cut of the Saudi investments.

“We need major investments in leading sectors of the economy that will create jobs, that will have multiplier effects, that will increase our exports and that will open up our markets,” Awadallah said in the interview.