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Ammon News - Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh Saturday said Jordan's economic reforms aim to achieve a 5.5 per cent growth rate, create over one million job opportunities within ten years and bring in JOD 41 billion worth of investment.

In a meeting to discuss progress in the Economic Modernisation 2023-2025 action plan, Khasawneh said the government's goals are both "ambitious and difficult at the same time."

He noted the uncertainty in the global economy and the expected humble world growth rates during the next two years. He said he would consider a 70 per cent delivery on the stated goals a national "achievement."

Khasawneh added that the action plan is a "flexible, lively and modifiable document that is in line with the comprehensive political, economic and social modernisation paths," noting that partners in the formulation and implementation of the action plan attended the meeting, which was held at the Prime Ministry.

He noted that achieving the goals of economic modernisation requires partnerships with business, industry, trade and investors, dignitaries, representatives, economists and the media, adding that understanding the regional economic challenges and the global economy is needed to realise the economic modernisation goals.

Khasawneh quoted His Majesty King Abdullah II as describing the economic modernisation vision as "intergovernmental," explaining that it would go on for ten years and interject with the two strands of reforms: political and public sector modernisation visions.

He added that the economic modernisation vision action plan is aimed at luring in an estimated JOD1.5 billion in foreign investments and JOD2.5 billion in local investment.

"This is a grave challenge, but it is an essential basis for achieving the goals of the vision of economic modernisation in terms of increasing opportunities for economic growth and creating job opportunities," Khasawneh explained.

"We will not be able to produce a successful approach to deal with the challenges of poverty and unemployment, given that the public sector provides employment prospects," Khasawneh said, noting that the public sector, "at its best," military and civilian offices, cannot provide more than 15,000 job opportunities annually in a given year.

He added that the "only way" to create job opportunities is by empowering the private sector as a "key" partner in developing the national economy and supporting local and foreign investment, noting that the government is working to address obstacles facing struggling projects.