South Korea keen to further bolster Amman-Seoul ties, joint virus fight — envoy

AMMAN — South Korea is keen on boosting its development cooperation with Jordan and stands ready to explore further support to the Kingdom.

“We are committed to continued support to the Kingdom and we are willing to further explore how to strengthen our development cooperation,” South Korean Ambassador to Jordan Lee Jae-wan said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times.

South Korea’s development cooperation with Jordan started in 1991, he said, adding that South Korea has been providing Jordan with concessional loans with low interest rates and long payback periods to support development projects as part of its “active participation” in development in the Kingdom.

From 1991 to 2019, South Korea provided Jordan with $250 million in soft loans to implement five projects, including the Research and Training Reactor Construction Project at the Jordan University for Science and Technology and other wastewater treatment projects in the Kingdom, according to the ambassador.

During that same period, South Korea provided Jordan with a total grant aid volume of $130 million to support sustainable socio-economic growth and implement projects in the fields of construction, education, health, vocational training and governance. A total of 23 projects were implemented in these fields and funded by these grants from South Korea.

These projects include the Jordan-Korea Technology Institute in Zarqa, the Special School for Hearing Impaired Students and the establishment of several healthcare centres and the establishment of the e-procurement system, among others.

The ambassador said that South Korea is also keen to increase cooperation in the field of vocational training, an important player in job creation and addressing unemployment.

South Korea has also been supporting Jordan in the field of technical cooperation through sharing knowledge and expertise in several arenas, he said.

On measures taken by Jordan to combat the spread of coronavirus, he noted: “I feel safe to be here, and Jordan is one of the safest countries.”

“Jordan took very proactive measures like South Korea and succeeded in its efforts to contain the virus, and we want to work together to overcome the virus and we are ready to share our experience,” he added.