Gov’t may issue $1-billion eurobonds during Q4 of 2018 — Malhas

AMMAN — Finance Minister Omar Malhas said that the government may consider issuing $1-billion eurobonds in the fourth quarter of the year, if it was deemed necessary.

Malhas' remarks came during Tuesday's Lower House oversight session in which he added that the lending limits are set in the 2018 State Budget Law, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Jordan issued $500-million worth of eurobonds on international markets in April 2017. The bond was sold with a yield rate of 5.875 per cent.

Citigroup and J.P. Morgan managed the issuance.

More than 150 major global investment funds in the US, the UK and Asia, as well as some funds from the Arab Gulf, were part of the oversubscription.

In 2016, Jordan issued $1-billion eurobonds on international markets. 

Education Minister Omar Razzaz said that the ministry has decreased the number of the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) halls form 1,600 to 600, noting that a "big change" is awaiting the examination, which will include computerising Tawjihi to overcome shortcomings. 

The government, in response to questions by MPs on the size of state-owned lands exchanged with companies and individuals, said that the total area stood at 7.62 million square metres, most of them were forest lands and for "military or security" reasons, adding that the lands were given away under the 1974 State Property Law.

Meanwhile, deputy Mahmoud Neimat said he would refer to the attorney general's office for a suspected corruption case in the lands given to the National Poultry Company (NPC). The MP inquired about lands' area, price and duration of renting. 

Neimat called on the Lower House's integrity committee to start an investigation on renting Treasury lands to the company. 

Malhas said that the total area authorised to NPC is 3,645 dunums, where the authorisation was made to the company to establish poultry slaughterhouse and barracks in 1994, 1999, 2005 and 2007 under Cabinet decisions.

The minister noted that the price for each dunum of land in Qatraneh that the company paid for the government ranged between JD50 and JD250. 

MP Nabil Ghishan described the government's decision to deduct 10 per cent off employees' salaries as "arbitrary" and not based on legal grounds, wondering about the number of employees who were included in the decision and the number of workers who benefitted from amending basic salaries. 

Malhas answered by saying that the 10 per cent deduction decision included 861 public employees, with the collected amounts reaching JD68,000, before the decision was suspended in the beginning of 2018.