Jordan conclude agreement with Islamic Development Bank

Jordan and the Islamic Development Bank signed a 100 million U.S. dollars agreement to support the state budget, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation said Thursday. Around 79 million U.S. dollars are in the form of soft loans, while the rest is a grant, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Emad Fakhoury said in a statement.

The deal will help support Jordan amidst a turbulent region, said Fakhoury, adding that Jordan was greatly affected by the crisis in Syria which resulted in the influx of some 1.3 million Syrian refugees into the Kingdom. The Syrian refugees, he said, place a heavy pressure on Jordanian resources and infrastructure and increase economic and financial challenges on the kingdom.

Several health projects will be supported under the deal to reduce pressure on the sector. Since 1970 to date, the Islamic Development Bank provided Jordan with 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in grants and loans to Jordan.

The minister voiced appreciation to the bank, which he said played a key role in supporting the Kingdom overcome challenges. He added that the aid to Jordan follows the London Conference for donor countries in 2016 when the donor community pledged to provide aid to the Kingdom in cash assistance and other forms of support.

The agreement comes days after the agreement concluded between Jordan and Germany on Monday for grants and soft loans to support development projects in the Kingdom.  With the German support totalling 107.5 million euros, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury noted that 83.5 million euros are earmarked as grants, while around 24 million euros will be provided as soft loans to support a number of development schemes. 

Noting that the new agreements are part of Germany’s support to the Jordan Response Plan and a follow up on its London Conference commitments, Fakhoury expressed Jordan’s gratitude to the government and people of Germany for their “continuous and generous support to the Kingdom to assist it in its development efforts and to help address some of the challenges arising from the influx of Syrian refugees”.

“We strongly value the commitment and pledges made by Germany as the co-host of the London and Brussels conferences. We are grateful for the way they translated their pledges into actual commitments on the ground,” the minister said. He also voiced appreciation for Germany’s additional support to Jordan as a result of the Brussels Conference. 

About 191.3 million euros were announced as additional support to Jordan’s Executive Development Programme, the Jordan Response Plan and other development priorities, including 150 million euros to support the water sector in cooperation with the the KfW, the German government-owned development bank, according to the minister.