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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - CNN's emerging markets reporter, John Defterios conducted an interview with His Majesty King Abdullah II. Following are some excerpts from the interview: John Defterios: You put a clear economic plan to relaunch the national economy and you target 7.5 percent growth in ten years, what makes you believe you will be able to achieve these figures? King Abdullah: Before the international financial crisis a couple of years ago, we were at 7 percent, so getting back to 7 percent is actually, I think, doable, and as you said, we are 3 percent at the moment, we hope to be at 4 percent next year and get ourselves back up to 7 percent.

John Defterios: In fact, you put forward a buffet to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) to $20 billion over five years and I went back five years and your FDIs were just below $9 billion, so you are suggesting almost doubling up these investments, how do you do that? King Abdullah: We have learned lessons because of the regional turmoil. A lot of us are going to alternative energy, which is going to make Jordan a powerhouse. We are gifted with 300 days of the year with beautiful sunshine and because we are energy importing country, renewables are going to be very important there will be a major leap in renewable energy in Jordan. We are targeting to be an exporter of renewable energy to Europe and beyond.

John Defterios: Out of third of young aged Jordanians who could be working right now are without a job, and it’s a similar tale throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

King Abdullah: Throughout the world actually, I believe. That’s the major challenge that we all have; the youth. But as you put it out, in the Middle East, the largest youth cohort in history, we are talking about 25 million jobs in the next decade. So this is why one of the reasons we want to launch this [economic plan], because it is so important for us to get jobs for young people.

John Defterios: Clearly you want to 500,000 jobs over five years. It sounds you are setting the bar very high, but you need to deliver, because of this 33 percent youth unemployment rate is quite painful.

King Abdullah: Jordan’s exports have been the human talents. But now how do we adapt Jordan and our young population to be able to take advantage of that. We are a young population, tech savvy, bilingual. So a small country to be able to adapt to the regional challenges is something that we have been usually successful in being able to do.

John Defterios: It is extraordinary, we are talking about FDIs and international companies coming in, and in the north ISIS took Palmyra and has line of sight to Damascus. They took Ramadi in Iraq has line of sight to Baghdad. Who is going to make a bid on a region that has that much chaos? And did other partners, particularly the US and the GCC states, underestimate the threat of ISIS, which you said was enemy number one? King Abdullah: For Jordan looking north and east it is our tactical enemy number one. We have 1.4 Syrian refugees in Jordan, which is a tremendous burden for our country, but there is also displaced Syrians across out borders, fairly safe fairly stable, and I believe people will start looking how do we make that southern Syria area more conducive to normal life.

John Defterios: If you look at the destruction in Palmyra, it is destruction of heritage its almost like the middle ages.

King Abdullah: so sad! John Defterios: And in fact it is destroys tourism and these heritage sites in the future.

King Abdullah: To me it makes no sense whatsoever how these people think. I think they don’t have a concept of humanity, of religion, of life. And I think it’s just a wakeup call for all of us what this threat is.