Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Zeina Touqan, participated in the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The meeting was held Monday, in the city of Sharm El-Sheikh under the title “Sustainable Growth in a Challenging World.” The opening session was attened by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The AIIB President, representatives of member states, international and multilateral financing organizations and banks participated in the meeting.
“The meeting takes place at an important time, after the Financing for Development Summit, the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, and the Climate Ambition Summit were held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings, which focused on the importance of access to financing, especially in light of the financing needs of the climate change agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals,” a Ministry statement cited Minister Touqan as saying in a keynote speech in the meeting.
Touqan stressed the importance of increasing the role assigned to multilateral banks and the importance of coordination between them in order to direct resources in an optimal way towards urgent needs, and the need for innovative financing tools that meet the demands of member states, enabling them to access low-cost, concessional financing and directing financing to invest in infrastructure and projects that contribute to reducing the impact of climate change.
The Minister also underlined the importance of diversifying financing tools for the private sector, such as enhancing credit and providing guarantees that mitigate risks, with the aim of implementing partnership projects between the public and private sectors, strategic projects, and private sector investments, in light of the high cost of financing for investment projects.
On the sidelines of her participation in the annual meeting, the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation signed an additional financing agreement for the results-based program on comprehensive and climate-responsive investments in Jordan, worth $200 million, provided by the AIIB, which was signed by Vice President for Investment Operations on behalf of the AIIB.
Touqan expressed appreciation the financing provided by the AIIB to Jordan due to its importance in supporting the budget and implementing priority reforms in line with the economic modernization vision and aims to enhance the investment and business environment and green transformation through a set of measures, such as improving the process of preparing and implementing government capital projects and climate-responsive capital spending to attract investment and improving business licensing procedures to reduce costs.
This financing is the second with the AIIB and is based on the $250 million financing (loan) provided by the AIIB, the agreement which was previously signed and as joint financing with the World Bank loan at the amount of $400 million the agreement which was signed on 4/17/2023.
The Minister of Planning held meetings on the sidelines of AIIB gathering with a number of participating delegations, during which she highlighted the development priorities within the economic modernization vision, reforms that Jordan is working to implement, economic challenges it faces and its efforts to overcome them.
During the meetings, she stressed the urgent need for concessional financing mixed with grants to enable Jordan to implement its priority programs and projects.
The Minister also met with senior AIIB officials, where they discussed cooperation priorities for the next stage.
For their part, AIIB officials expressed their interest in supporting Jordan’s priorities in the infrastructure sectors, including strategic and regional projects related to Jordan.
The AIIB launched its financing operations in mid-January 2016 with a capital of $100 billion, and Jordan is considered one of the founding members of the bank.
Source: Jordan News Agency