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Ammon News - The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation Marwan Refai Wednesday met with representatives of international donors, embassies and international financial institutions to discuss the revised Matrix of Economic Reforms.

In a press statement, the ministry said that the meeting aims at presenting the revised Reform Matrix, launched at the 2019 Jordan Growth and Opportunity: The London Initiative, to representatives from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other donors as well as embassies.

Over the past few months, the ministry's Economic Reform Implementation Support Unit (ERISU) has made revisions to the Reform Matrix following consultations with the public and private sectors. The unit introduced the tourism sector into the matrix and shed light on other vital areas of relevance such as the agriculture and water sectors, as well as enhancing public sector efficiency and governance.

Stakeholders were briefed on the reforms carried out in the economic and financial areas as part of the 2018-2024 Economic Reforms Matrix, in addition to other reforms currently underway and its connection to the government's economic priorities program, the statement added.

Refai commended the donors' support, through the Reform Support Fund, to implement several proposed reforms in the matrix. "The Reform Matrix is more important now than ever," said Refai, "not only because of the COVID-19 fallout, but also because the matrix sets the general framework for the government's strategic trends, such as the Indicative Executive Plan and the recently announced Economic Priorities Program."

The Economic Reform Matrix has become the key reference for many international and bilateral agreements and financing programs with entities like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he added.

A set of the most important reforms that have been implemented since 2018 were also presented at the meeting, including the newly-introduced Public-Private Sector partnership law and its bylaws and the Government Units Budgets Law 2021.

Additionally, other reforms included adopting and implementing the ISIC4 classification framework, issuance of the nursery licensing bylaw in 2019 followed by the issuance of Home-based childcare licensing instruction in 2021, endorsing and launching the National Social Protection Strategy (2019-2025), establishment of the Tourism Resilience Fund, approval of integrated National Intelligent Transport System, launch of energy storage and e-mobility assessments, continued implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy water optimization projects and the launch of Food Security Strategy.

Following multiple high-key meetings on climate change this year, the meeting also tackled how the unit mainstreamed and integrated the climate change and environment aspect in the reform matrix to prop up Jordan's efforts in the shift to a green economy and support the government in attracting climate finance.

According to the statement, the five-year Reform Matrix aims at achieving macroeconomic stability, public sector efficiency and governance, improving the business environment and competitiveness of the private sector, increasing exports and the flow of foreign direct investment, facilitating access to funding, raising the efficiency of the labor market and increasing its flexibility, improving and expanding the social safety net. The matrix also subsumes four areas that focus on policy reform in the transport, energy, water, agriculture and tourism sectors.

The Economic Reform Implementation Support Unit was established in late 2019 to oversee the implementation of the Reform Matrix and provide the necessary technical assistance to government entities to facilitate the implementation of the reforms. Also, the unit reaches out to and consults with relevant stakeholders on a regular basis to prioritize economic reforms and prepares periodic progress reports.

(Petra)