(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency)
Amman, April 28 (Petra) -- Jordan, represented by Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Emad Najib Fakhouri, participated in the second Brussels conference on supporting the future of Syria and the region, which was held jointly by the European Union and the United Nations.
The conference, which was attended by a large number of Arab and European Union representatives, some 86 delegations from 57 countries, regional organizations, international financial institutions, 19 United Nations agencies and representatives of civil society organizations working in Syria and neighboring countries, discussed a number of policy and funding in addition to humanitarian assistance inside Syria.
The conference also included a number of meetings related to neighboring countries hosting Syrian refugees and the most important services provided by these countries to support the Syrian refugees, the best ways to ensure efficient distribution of aid as well as renewing international commitments to supporting host countries and providing support within Syria.
According to the conference final statement, the international community has acknowledged the enormous efforts made by neighboring countries and their citizens, particularly Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, in addition to Iraq and Egypt, to host millions of refugees from Syria.
The conference welcomed the financial and structural reforms implemented by the Jordanian government in a difficult economic environment, with the aim of ensuring financial sustainability and improving the investment climate.
The conference also welcomed the UK's intention to host an international conference with Jordan in London later this year to present Jordan's economic reform plans and its ambition to build and empower a thriving private sector and mobilize support from international investors and donors.
On the sidelines of the conference, Fakhouri met with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hah, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
The Minister of Planning also met with Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Mark C. Storella, British Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt, and State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Martin Jager.
During the meetings, Fakhouri said that Jordan's development partners have contributed to the efforts to strengthen Jordan's resilience, stressing the importance of continued international support for Jordan, which has reached its maximum capacity to shoulder the burden of hosting Syrian refugees.
The participants in the conference and meetings highly praised Jordan's leading role in responding to the Syrian crisis.
The pledges made by the international community at the second Brussels conference amounted to $4.4 billion in 2018 in the form of humanitarian and development grants to support Syria and host countries of Syrian refugees in the region.
They also pledged $3.4 billion in grants for the years 2019-2020. Soft loans of $21.2 billion were also announced from donors and international financial institutions, of which $ 2.3 billion was on very concessional terms. A number of important countries such as the United States will announce their pledges after the conference in the coming months.
The Minister of Planning announced that as part of the final communiqué, the conference adopted a partnership paper with Jordan, which included the themes of what has been achieved since the London conference and the commitment to implementing the Jordan Compact.
The document sheds light on what has been achieved since the Brussels Conference last year, including the financial commitments of 2017 worth $ 1.7 billion made by the international community towards Jordan last year.
The document also affirmed the international community's commitment to assisting Jordan in carrying out reforms in various fields and addressing challenges facing the Kingdom.
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28/4/2018 - 08:14:47 PM
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