(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah has received from Prime Minister Hani Mulki a report that highlights the government's achievements in 2017, a Royal Court statement announced on Sunday.
The report included eight main aspects that covered progress in economic reform, human resources development, employment and labour, administrative reform, public sector development and addressing corruption, political reform, judiciary development, social safety and development and public services sector.
In the report, the government said that it managed to decrease the budget deficit in 2017 to 15 per cent, compared to 2016, and achieved a 4.4 per cent increase in public debt, which, the report said, is the lowest in a decade.
Meanwhile, the government marked a 7.7 per cent increase in domestic revenues and improved financial self-reliance ratio — local revenues' coverage of current expenditure — amounted to 95 per cent in 2017, compared with 90 per cent in 2016.
Modest GDP growth with some bright spots
The government described the economic performance as 'modest', where real GDP grew by 2 per cent during the first three quarters of 2017.
On the other hand, the report said that some sectors showed improvement, including the tourism income that increased by 12.5 per cent in 2017, and the foreign direct investment that grew by 19.1 per cent during the first three quarters of 2017.
The national exports increased by 1.5 per cent, while imports increased by 5.4 per cent; the trade deficit increased by 9.7 per cent during the first 11 months of 2017.
Energy and water security
To enhance energy security, the government underlined the construction of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) storage facilities in Aqaba, with a total capacity of 6,000 tonnes, in addition to oil derivative capacities of 250,000-300,000 tonnes, and 8,000 tonnes available to store LPG in central Jordan.
In addition, there is also a 100,000-tonne storage capacity for crude oil and derivatives in Aqaba. (The Government expects these projects to be completed by mid-2018.)
As for renewable energy, solar and wind power projects have been developed generating a total of 1,600 megawatts. These projects were funded through attracting private sector investments exceeding $2 billion.
As for water security, the prequalification tender for the Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project was tendered, and the government built eight large dams, eight desert dams for water harvesting, in addition to drilling 26 wells in different regions of the Kingdom.
Human resources and education
As for the National Strategy for Human Resource Development (HRD) at the educational level, a total of 28 new kindergartens, containing 68 rooms were established, and 230 kindergartens were furnished and equipped last year, in addition to renovating and restoring 60 classrooms.
Also, 50 new schools were built and 37 other schools were expanded, bringing the total classroom capacity to 222 rooms. Additionally, 26 schools with fewer than 20-30 students were merged.
Moreover, a pre-service teacher training programme was initiated in coordination with the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, where 501 teachers were qualified to attend the training programme, and a total of 52,758 teachers were trained within the pre-service professional development programmes.
Regarding vocational school education, specialties in this field were reduced from 25 to 10, in addition to signing an agreement with the Vocational Training Corporation to train 2,000 students.
The government noted the launch of the National Programmeme for Empowerment and Employment in early 2017 to empower and employ Jordanians in several key sectors (industry, tourism, agriculture, construction, services [nurseries], and fuel stations). A total of JD100 million has been allocated to provide incentives to trainers.
Judicial, public sector reforms
Pertaining to the development of the judiciary system (recommendations put forward by the Royal Committee for Developing the Judiciary and Enhancing the Rule of Law), 12 draft laws and 10 bylaws were put forward, in order to contribute to the modernisation and development of the judicial system and enhancement of its role in upholding the rule of law.
As for the public sector reform, an amended civil service bylaw was introduced, which included a number of amendments, such as the introduction of the flexible working hours system for public sector employees; the activation of the principle of reward and punishment in public services; and the development of employee performance evaluation mechanisms.
Regarding the development of government services through the e-government and digital economy, the procedures for launching 98 e-services in 16 government departments were reengineered, the report said.
Implementation has already started in 13 governmental institutions for reengineering procedures, where a total of 243 services were reengineered; 86 e-services are operational and 36 services have been automated.
In the healthcare sector, a total of 20 health centres were expanded or constructed, while four hospitals were expanded. Work was also completed in the 200-bed Al Iman Hospital in Ajloun and the 350-bed new Salt Hospital.
On Social Safety Net programmes, the total number of families benefiting from the National Aid Fund reached 92,519 families by the end of 2017, at the cost of JD100 million.
Youth empowerment
As for the youth sector, the report underlined 'vital programmes' that were carried out to raise awareness about the dangers of extremism and terrorism, confront hate speech and educate youngsters on other societal problems such as drugs and violence. A total of 50,000 young people benefited from these programmes.
The government established 12 social sports clubs and eight football fields in the said timespan.
Tourism: success story
The report highlighted achievements and progress in various aspects of public administration, including the tourism sector, where the number of visitors to the Kingdom rose to 5.2 million in 2017, an increase of 8.7 per cent compared with 2016, and tourism income increased by 12.5 per cent during 2017 reaching $4.6 billion.
Jordan also ranked among the top 50 countries in the World Security and Safety Index, attracting tourism, moving up two spots on the global tourism scale.
The Kingdom has been listed as one of the top 2018 tourism destinations by many international travel magazines such as National Geographic, Vogue (USA), Sunday Times (UK), Conde Nast (UK) and The Guardian.
Other achievements
The government in 2017 'successfully carried out municipal and local council elections', and provided all means of support to the Independent Election Commission, the
report said.
On this note, Amman was chosen as the capital of Islamic culture in 2017, given the great role played by Jordan in highlighting the tolerant image of Islam, and standing up in the face of challenges and the practices of extremists, according to the report.
The report also cited progress in combating crime and drugs, reporting a 91.5 percentage of solved crimes in 2017 (total number of crimes is 21,920, of which 20,060 were reportedly solved).
The total number of drug cases amounted to 13,950, and the number of people involved 19,930, of whom 1,321 were treated in addiction treatment facilities.
Also in 2017, a total of 37 draft and amended laws were approved and referred to the Parliament for approval. The Cabinet also approved 157 draft and amended bylaws.
As for the Kingdom's diplomacy and foreign affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has taken immediate practical steps to ensure the provision of better consular services to citizens.
The ministry also cancelled the tax exemption card for diplomats, consular corps and diplomats accredited to the Kingdom as of January 1, 2018, and established an electronic complaints system.
2017 also witnessed achieving the Jordanian-Russian-American agreement to support ceasefire in southern Syria, and establishing the de-escalation zone. Additionally, Jordan participated in the Astana talks (6, 7 and 8) as an observer.
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