Ammon News - ISTANBUL (Petra) Deputizing for His Majesty King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Friday took part in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD) 22nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors and Business Forum which started today in Istanbul.
In a speech delivered in the opening session, Ensour said that the meeting is held in a very critical era of the region due to the radical changes in our countries.
We cannot ignore what is happening in the region in terms of the peoples' ambitions to democracy, and to involve them in shaping their future after years of marginalization and negligence, Ensour said, adding that "although these changes helped make some positive changes in the transformation towards the democratic ruling and the participation of the people in determining their political, economic, and social priorities away from the individual's rule, there have been some negative economic and security subsequences at the short term such as slow down in economic growth and the deterioration of security in some countries which negatively affected the standards of living and the productivity level, hoping that these negative implications are temporary and will disappear very soon".
We realize that these challenges worsened because of the negative consequences suffered by the region in terms of the global financial crisis, the food crisis, and the problems associated with water security and energy which together decreased the growth rates and increased the unemployment rates. Therefore, extraordinary efforts are needed to overcome the challenges facing our region, the premier said.
He added that "the Jordanian leadership has realized that political reforms cannot be achieved without the economic reforms. The failure of development can be attributed to the illusion that economic development can be rushed in the absence of an oriented movement towards realizing the necessary revival and political reform".
Jordan witnessed in the previous year a number of integral reform steps reflected in the essential constitutional amendments that resulted in the establishment of the constitutional court and the Independent Election Commission in addition to the amendment of the elections law of and political parties law as well as the assembly law, Ensour noted in his remarks, noting that "one of the most eminent accomplishments achieved was carrying out the parliamentary elections in the beginning of this year under the complete supervision of the Independent Election Commission. The votes were sorted out by The House of Representatives without laying any kind of influence on the electors’ will in an environment filled with transparency, freedom and integrity. The adopted procedures were praised by international and local observers, however, most importantly the citizens were satisfied".
Building on this accomplishment, the government is committed to working on carrying out the Parliamentary Government through which governments will be thoroughly emergent from the Parliament crystallizing the visions of the King, as this is the first time that the Prime Minister is nominated, by the Lower House after a number of consultation tours with the Parliamentary blocs and the independent Parliamentarians, Ensour added, pointing out that "the PM, consulted and opened channels of dialogue with all blocs and independent legislators, and such consultations led to the formation of the new Cabinet cementing the road to the evolvement of the idea of Parliamentarian programs-based government and our efforts are currently directed on accomplishing this goal." This also leads us at the government, and within our comprehension of our political and legislative duties, to the belief that the work of the political parties is a necessity and a key requirement for Parliamentary Governments, and the government will work in the coming era in consultation with the Lower House, civil society institutions, political parties, and the various professional associations and political entities to present new elections and political parties draft laws to enhance the presence of the political parties at the Legislature. This will enhance the ability of the Lower House to generate Parliamentary Governments that emerge out of it in the future, the premier added.
He stressed that "in Jordan, we believe that the objective of any political or developmental process is the citizen as well as enhancing his confidence in the state’s institutions and activating his participation in decision making and in identifying the priorities. To realize that, we formed a national integrity committee whose duty is to deliver specific and clear recommendations to enable oversight institution and promote their institutional capacities in addition to reform the administrative and financial systems and solidify the principles of governance, transparency and accountability at the level of state institutions and to ensure the effective management of public funds in addition to developing regulatory frameworks for the participatory relations among the various sectors".
"The above was promoted by Jordan’s accession to the Open Government Partnership initiative. A team has been formed to prepare the voluntary action plan related to participating in the initiative. The action plan includes the steps taken by the government to enhance transparency as well as steps and programs to be implemented to capitalize upon the accomplishments. Jordan is committed to continue working on this aspect based on its belief of performing all the required reforms", Ensour noted, adding that "despite the development pace witnessed by the national economy during the past decade, Jordan’s economy currently faces financial and economic challenges that have profoundly affected its overall performance. Most notable of these challenges are the slowdown of economic growth, increase of inflation, budget deficit and decrease in foreign direct investments as well as the persistence of poverty and unemployment".
Ensour noted that the main reasons behind such challenges lay in the global and regional economic setbacks suffered that hit, which deeply reflected on our national economy. "They were manifested in global economic and financial crises, high increase of global oil prices and upsurge of electricity generation costs due to heavy fuel oil in addition to political and security ramifications in the region and the prevailing uncertainty, multiplied by the severity of the Syrian crisis and its negative impacts on Jordan due to receiving massive numbers of Syrian, who constituted an extra burden to the state’s treasury and to the various sectors", the premier said. "To drive economic development and enhance national economy’s capacity, the government will capitalize on the achievements related to the incentives of economic growth and will continue its economic reform endeavor to keep pace with the present developments by implementing a new Government Work Plan for the years 2013-2016, with an estimated US$ 10 billion of investments. The Work Plan includes priorities, programs and projects in 22 economic, social and service sectors in addition to over 1000 projects. The purpose of this is to develop and enhance the economic and social environment to ensure the achievement of sustainable development and the equality of distributing development outcomes" Ensour added.
"In addition to capital expenditure projects, the government through its Work Plan, places emphasis on improving the legislative and regulatory systems to drive economic growth, and gives a higher role to the private sector in the economic process in addition to motivating and attracting foreign direct investments. At the top of these legislations, prepared in close consultation with the private sector, the investment law, recently endorsed by the Council of Ministers, and the Private Public Partnership Law, Reorganization of Business, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, in addition to a new Secured Lending Law, a Venture Capital Law and Entrepreneurship and SME Development Law," the premier said. He added that the investment program along with legislation amendment aims to develop the infrastructure facilities and promote the role of the private sector within a clear and transparent regulatory framework. "Jordan is considered the regional gateway to countries of the region and world. It enables investors and entrepreneurs to access markets with a 1 billion consumers. It has modern and developed infrastructure. It enjoys multiple logistical facilities in many sectors which help access these markets. In addition to qualified human resources who obtained training which would provide appropriate environment to attract new investments, to expand the existing ones, and to attract partnerships in various sectors," Ensour noted The premier thanked the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for its decision to expand its operations in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) Countries and to launch its investments in Jordan in order to attach great importance to cooperation with the Bank in next stage.
"We look forward to continuing discussions with bank officials at various levels on directing the cooperation and resources towards the following priority areas: 1) Supporting the implementation of the Government's Work Plan for the years 2013-2016, mainly the implementation of major projects included in the partnership with the private sector to contribute with balanced development to include various segments of society.
2) Supporting the private sector to increase its investments in infrastructure projects due to its importance in helping the Government of Jordan to overcome the challenges, especially in the sectors of water, energy; mainly electricity. In addition, hosting big numbers of Syrians has worsened these challenges. We look forward to further investments in the private sector in Jordan in renewable energy, water and water treatment plants and transport sectors.
3) Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) for their contribution in enhancing the economy by creating employment opportunities in all areas of the Kingdom, as well as providing assistant to finance such projects" Ensour said.
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