The German government has committed to providing Jordan with new development aid worth EUR 394.3 million, according to the annual Jordanian-German government talks on 2020 development cooperation which was signed Saturday.

The aid, which comes in the form of grants, technical assistance and soft loans, will be spent in the coming years to finance priority development projects in the sectors of education, water, sanitation and renewable energy,

In addition, the funding will be spent in the sectors of vocational training, technical education, the environment, projects within the Jordanian response plan to the Syrian crisis and others in response to the challenges arising due to COVID-19.

The annual Jordanian-German government talk took place over the course of two days, with participation from a delegation from the Jordanian government headed by the Minister of Planning, Nasser Shraideh, and chaired by the Director General of the Middle East Department at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Claudia Farning.

Moreover, the German negotiating delegation and representatives of the German Development Agency and the German Reconstruction Bank (KfW) were present as well.

The German aid committed to the following distribution:

• EUR 166 million in financial aid from grants and soft loans to support national priorities and to enable the beneficiary ministries to implement projects and programs within these priorities. This includes support for improving educational processes and projects to support the water sector, through KfW in cooperation with the relevant sectoral ministries.
• EUR 50 million in technical assistance to implement technical development projects for vital sectors such as water and sanitation, environment, renewable energy, education, vocational training and technical education to contribute to creating more job opportunities, through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in cooperation with the concerned sectoral ministries.
• EUR 126.1 million in grants to fund projects to support service projects and priorities in the host communities within the Jordanian response plans.
• EUR 52.2 million, of which a grant in the amount of EUR 50 million is provided for responses to the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis. The German government's contribution to the joint grant is to enhance the efforts of the Jordanian government in supporting the most vulnerable groups through the National Aid Fund to address the coronavirus crisis. EUR 2.2 million will go towards commitments precedent from the German government to finance developmental projects.

Germany is the second largest donor country to Jordan.