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Ammon News - Prime Minister, Bisher Khasawneh, on Tuesday said that the government will resume the implementation of economic and development plans and programs that were devised prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speakinf to a meeting at the Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF), held Tuesday evening on the tenth anniversary of the JSF's foundation, the Prime Minister announced that the government is about to launch stimulus packages for industries in areas and governorates that record a high increase in unemployment rates.

Attended by ministers, officials, JSF members, and representatives of the private sector, Khasawneh indicated that the government is working to increase jobs, in response to royal directives in this regard, by building a strategic partnership with the private sector, especially since the public sector alone in unable to address challenges of unemployment.

In this regard, the Premier revealed that the government will soon launch a JD80 million national employment program to create nearly 60,000 jobs.

He underlined the importance of adopting enabling policies for the private sector, attracting more Arab and foreign investment, and enhancing existing investments in Jordan..

Khasawneh also indicated that the government will soon refer a new draft law regulating the investment environment, addressing interference, and unifying investment procedures existing in 44 laws and 1,600 regulations and instructions, to the Lower House of Parliament, in order to facilitate procedures for local, Arab and foreign investors.

The Prime Minister highlighted measures that has been taken to support national industries, most notably the new electricity tariff that will be applied as of April, stressing that this tariff will not affect 93 per cent of Jordanians.

On the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis on the Jordanian economy, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that the forward-looking view of His Majesty King Abdullah immunized Jordan against the crisis, according to World Bank reports, which indicated that the Kingdom is one of the countries most able to deal with it, stressing that the Kingdom’s stockpile of wheat and barley is enough for long periods of time.

On the holt month of Ramadan, the Prime Minister said Jordan has a safe strategic stock of ggods and foodstuffs, noting that the private sector played an important and responsible role in this matter during the Covid-19 pandemic and since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

Khasawneh lauded the Jordanian private sector's role, pointing out that "its stakeholders lead the fight against traders who raise prices of goods, and they are very few," stressing that the prices of basic commodities and goods in Jordan are lower than neighboring countries except for one.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister addressed a wide range of local and domestic issues and affairs of interest to citizens, specially poverty and unemployment and the government's future plans and programs to deal with these two major issues.