PM Razzaz: Jordan model for economic, political resilience

Jordan

Published: 2020-01-22 16:24

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 16:52


PM Razzaz: Jordan model for economic, political resilience
PM Razzaz: Jordan model for economic, political resilience

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said that Jordan has, over the past decades, become a model for economic and political resilience despite challenges imposed by surrounding regional circumstances.

The Prime Minister made his remarks during the "Geopolitical Outlook: The Middle East and North Africa" session as part of the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) currently held in Davos and was moderated by President of the Forum, Borge Brende, with the participation of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi and a former member of the US Congress, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer, of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Jane Harman

Razzaz said Jordan worked on improving its institutional capacity and took measures that enabled it to deal with various challenges, enhance its economic and political resilience, and move forward in the right direction despite all challenges.

"We suffer from high unemployment and there are young people who are looking for job opportunities and have needs that we are working to meet," Razzaz added, saying that Jordan is proud that these needs were expressed peacefully and without spilling a single drop of blood.

He noted that the Syrian refugee crisis was dealt with in a humane manner, and that there was not a single hate crime against Syrian refugees "and we are proud of that. But at the same time we have great challenges, the first of which is that 20 percent of the population are refugees and Jordan is surrounded by closed borders," he explained.

He pointed out that the total burdens and costs incurred by Jordan in hosting Syrian refugees amount to $2.4 billion annually at a time when Jordan receives aid from countries and donors that cover only 42 percent of these costs, adding that the refugee crisis continues and the international community should shoulder its responsibilities towards the consequences of this crisis on host countries.

The premier stressed that despite challenges and difficulties, Jordan was able to advance on several indicators in the volume of national exports, which increased by 9 percent, just as tourism indicators increased by 10 percent in 2019.

Further, Jordan has advanced 29 percent in the Ease of Doing Business Report, and there is a qualitative leap in economic indicators and progress in indicators of education and information technology and a qualitative increase in digital education and creativity, pointing to the distinguished results achieved by Jordanian students in the global PISA test in fields of mathematics, science and reading.

The Prime Minister indicated that 27 out of the 100 startups in the Middle East region are Jordanian companies, according to the report issued by the WEF held in the Dead Sea region last year despite the fact that Jordan constitutes only about 3 percent of the population of the region.

"What happened at the global level didn't help peace, prosperity and did not help the region contribute positively to the world," Razzaz noted, pointing out that "We to draw lessons from the last decade and take advantage of it to make the current one a decade that enhances possibilities for stability in the region."

The Prime Minister pointed out that the world ignored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thought of other side battles at the expense of this conflict, warning that "if the aspirations of the Palestinian people are not met, we will all lose a major battle and leave the field and provide tools for extremist movements and groups to raise slogans demanding a role for them."

On the issue of the war on terrorism, the Prime Minister stressed that defeating ISIS does not mean eliminating terrorism, adding that "winning one battle does not mean winning the war on terrorism, and we must fully realize this so that there will be no ISIS version 3 or ISIS version 4."

He added: "We must also be cautious of regional and global interventions in the region and realize that the waves of asylum can contribute to undermining the sovereignty of states and have significant negative repercussions."

"When the sovereignty and borders of states are not respected, and when one party is supported at the expense of another, problems and challenges arise," the prime minister concluded.