Germany announces 413.9m euros in assistance for 2022-2023

AMMAN — Germany has announced that it will grant 413.9 million euros in assistance to Jordan for the 2022-2023 period, the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry said on Friday.

The assistance was announced after Jordanian-German negotiations on development cooperation presided over by Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nasser Shraideh and German Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Niels Annen, according to a Planning Ministry statement.

Shraideh said that the 413.9 million euro deal includes 318.4 million euros in development assistance, divided into 179 million euros in financial cooperation grants for development projects, 89.4 million euros in technical cooperation grants and 50 million euros in development loans for the water sector.

The minister said that the assistance also includes 95.5 million euros to support the hosting of Syrian refugees.

The assistance also includes an additional grant for the National Water Carrier Project worth 15 million euros, increasing German support for the project to a total 65 million euros in 2022, he added.

Shraideh praised the strategic Jordanian-German partnership which seeks to serve both countries' interests, expressing Jordan's gratitude to Germany for the assistance that helps meet the needs of several priority projects.

The minister also said that Germany is among main Kingdom’s development partners, predominantly in the water sector.

He also acquainted the German delegation with the latest developments regarding regional political crises and their effect on various economic sectors in Jordan, stressing the importance of German support in helping Jordan overcome the repercussions of these crises.  

Negotiations went over economic development projects focused on training and employment as a means to improve the private and financial sectors. Talks also covered digital transformation, expanding electronic skills and entrepreneurship and its role in employment.

The German delegates told their Jordanian counterparts about the German government’s intention to provide some 100 million euros in humanitarian assistance in 2023 to help the Kingdom with the hosting of Syrian refugees, noting that the assistance is pending the approval of German stakeholders.

On the sidelines of the negotiations, Shraideh signed a 26 million euro grant agreement from the German government via the German Development Bank to finance the second phase of the vocational and technical training programme at Al Hussein Technical University.