(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Amman, April 7 (Petra) –– Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Emad Fakhoury called on the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group to support the financing of the Jordanian response plan for Syrian refugees for the years 2018-2020 with a focus on supporting the capital projects of host communities.
The minister, who led Jordan's delegation to the forty-third annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors in Tunisia, called for finding appropriate financing mechanisms to stand up to the member states impacted by the conflicts in neighbouring countries and the influx of refugees, which posed a challenge that threatens the path of achieving sustainable development.
He cited the IDB's emergency health loan directed to supporting the budget, which was within the framework of the global facilitation mechanism and in partnership with the World Bank.
Fakhoury, who is Jordan's governor of the IDB, also stressed the importance of providing technical support to build the capacity of member states in their pursuit of sustainable development goals and linking them to national plans, while focusing on women and youth empowerment and employment initiatives.
He called on the IDB to intensify its efforts to enhance the role of the private sector as a partner in sustainable development, provide a financing base and technical assistance to support small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups and innovation.
Jordan, Fakhoury pointed out, had succeeded in implementing projects worth $10 billion during the last ten years, and said that the Kingdom is working to launch opportunities worth $15 billion over the next five years.
He highlighted the economic and financial challenges facing the Jordanian government and the necessary measures it had taken since the start of the Syrian crisis and its negative repercussions on the national economy.
The minister pointed to regional instability and its humanitarian ramifications, mainly the influx of 1.3 Syrian refugees to Jordan, which placed enormous pressure on the budget through providing basic services to the refugees and host communities at a direct annual cost of 1.5 billion dinars.
He called for turning the Syrian refugee crisis into a developmental opportunity that would positively reflect on host communities and refugees, mobilize additional and sufficient financial resources through grants to support the Jordanian response plan and the budget funding gap through grants and concessional financing and maintain macroeconomic stability.
Fakhoury also presented the development and modernization programs, telling the meeting that Jordan had not taken the regional turmoil as an excuse to slow the pace of comprehensive reform, and had managed to maintain macroeconomic, financial and monetary stability in coordination with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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7/4/2018 - 06:07:40 PM
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