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Ammon News - Prime Minister Bishr Khasawneh underlined the importance of boosting the 'strategic partnership' with the World Bank to support the government's efforts in the next phase in many key areas, Petra reported.

This came during a meeting on Tuesday with a delegation from the World Bank, including Dean of the Board of Executive Directors, Merza Hasan, World Bank Group (WBG) Vice President for Middle East, Ferid Belhaj, and WBG's Regional Director of the Mashreq Department, Saroj Kumar Jha.

Jordan, Khasawneh said, is looking to increase cooperation with the WBG to achieve a set of goals related to strengthening social protection, creating job opportunities for Jordanians and moving forward with economic and structural reforms to enhance financial and monetary stability, according to Petra.

The Prime Minister indicated that the government's efforts during the next stage are focused on achieving the necessary economic recovery and overcoming the economic challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He underscored the importance of enhancing cooperation between the two sides to stimulate investment and support partnership projects between the public and private sectors through the WBG's International Finance Corporation.

Hasan pointed to the partnership relations between the Bank and Jordan, pointing out that the Kingdom is the Bank's 'largest strategic partner in the Middle East.'

Hasan said the regional visit, which comes more than a year after the pandemic began, aims at discovering ways to provide support and assistance to countries to overcome the repercussions of the pandemic, adding that the region needs to create millions of job opportunities for young people, which is one of the biggest existing challenges that must be resolved.

Belhaj underscored the importance of enhancing Jordan's ability to attract investments in light of the great regional competition to solve the issues of poverty and unemployment.

He also underlined the World Bank's commitment to provide further financial assistance to enable Jordan to face the existing economic challenges.