Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Emad Fakhoury said on Saturday that the government is currently working with the World Bank on a new loan for development policy to plug the funding gap and restructure the Kingdom's debt.

The announcement was made in a statement released by the ministry on Fakhoury's recent visit to Washington, where he took part in the high-level Fragility Forum organised by the World Bank on March 5-7, during which he met with World Bank Group President Jim Yong-Kim and Chief Executive Officer for Reconstruction and Development, Kristalina Georgieva.

Fakhoury said that the loan would be "extremely soft" and directed to support the treasury and basically contribute to plugging the funding gap and restructuring debt in line with the fiscal reform program passed by the parliament.

The government and the World Bank, he said, are working on priority programs and projects to help Jordan carry out its reform agenda according to the 2018-2022 growth stimulus plan.

He said the meetings with the World Bank executives tackled future priorities and prospects of financial and technical cooperation with the Bank, including the bank's support for Jordan in 2018.

The World Bank is one of the government's key development partners. The number of programs and projects it signed with the bank over the period of 2015-2017 reached about $1049.4 million, which was directed to supporting such sectors as education, health, small and medium enterprises, youth and municipal services as well as supporting the budget.