(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency)
Amman, may 14 (Petra) –– As the Jordanian government fulfilled its commitments to achieve the first batch of prior actions of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) budget-support loan to the Kingdom, the agency disbursed $100 million, the first tranche of the loan amounting $300 million to be disbursed in three tranches between 2019 and 2020, according to a statement.
It said that the loan program, entitled: Business Environment, Employment and Fiscal Sustainability Reform Development Policy Loan (DPL), is associated with a list of prior actions that aim to enhance business making, facilitate credit and other services to SME's, support the industrial sector, encourage increased exporting and trade exchange and improve technical and vocational training.
It also focuses on implanting the culture of entrepreneurship and self-employment among school and university students, as well as clarifying the career path for university students at their early years of enrollment, and thus coordinate outputs of the higher education system with the local and regional labour market needs, it said.
Requirements for the first tranche are related to having a unified definition for SME's in Jordan, producing the first draft of the National Quality Policy and Quality Infrastructure Strategy, moving to a full operation stage in regards to the National Single Window, national coaches are qualified to provide export coaching to Jordanian industrial companies, final draft of the Technical and Vocational Skills Development Commission Law is approved by the Cabinet, Ministry of Labour approves the action plan for enhancing career counseling in the Employment Offices, educational counselors of the Ministry of Education are trained on career guidance for their students, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research hold events on developing internship programmes, and take steps on developing joint programmes between universities and the private sector, according to the statement.
The loan agreement was signed on 28th November 2018 between the Government of Jordan represented by the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, and JICA represented by Kazuhiko Koshikawa, Executive Senior Vice President, in Tokyo during His Majesty King Abdullah II's visit to Japan.
The total amount of the concessional loan is $300 million to be disbursed over between 2019 and 2020, with 25 years repayment period, in which the first 7 years as grace period.
The loan comes in parallel financing with the World Bank's DPL that was disbursed in July 2018, and is also well coordinated with the WB-Government of Jordan led 5-Year Growth Matrix, which was launched during London Conference held in February 2019, it said.
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14/05/2019 15:07:17
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