Al-Ississ heads Jordan delegation at annual World Bank meetings

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mohamad Al-Ississ is participating in the World Bank Group’s (WB) annual meetings currently being held in Washington, DC.

Al-Ississ, who heads the Jordan delegation to the meetings as the Kingdom’s governor at the WB, held meetings with WB Dean of the Board of Executive Directors Merza Hassan, WB Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Ferid Belhaj and Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg, according to a Planning Ministry statement.  

The minister also met with members of the mission to Jordan, where he acquainted them with the government’s priorities for the next phase aiming towards economic growth, increasing the level of public services and creating more jobs, mainly for youth, according to the statement. 

During the meetings, he shed light on challenges the Kingdom is facing due to hosting Syrian refugees, highlighting the important role the Kingdom plays.

In this regard, Al-Ississ underscored the significance of other nations “sharing these burdens fairly” with Jordan and continuing to provide assistance to Amman to help it sustain basic services for Syrian refugees and host communities, mainly in the educational and health fields, read the statement 

WB administration members praised the economic reforms recently implemented by Jordan, and stressed the significance of cooperation in implementing reforms by securing financial and technical support.

They also called on the international community to honour pledges to assist Jordan and provide more support to help the Kingdom face challenges resulting from regional instability.

Al-Ississ called for finding soft financing mechanisms that mix between soft loans and grants to cover the financial needs of the Kingdom during the next phase.

On the sidelines of the annual meetings, the minister also took part in a roundtable meeting organised by the US Chamber of Commerce with the participation of US investors and representatives of major companies, which aimed at promoting the Kingdom and calling on firms to start investments in Jordan.