Amman: Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh Saturday took part in the opening session of “Tawasul 2024″ forum, titled Jordan’s Resilience: From Stability to Recovery,” which was organized by the Crown Prince Foundation under the patronage of HRH Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II.
Emphasizing that Jordanian young men and women, who are the “real asset and wealth” of the country and who hold the promising future, the prime minister said the forum has become “an inclusive framework for communication that brings together the best youth in a productive dialogue to create a clear path forward.”
Despite limited resources, he said, Jordan has human resources that made tremendous achievements, which requires providing them with the means to raise their capacities and competencies.
The prime minister pointed to the Kingdom’s comprehensive modernization scheme in its political, economic and administrative tracks, with a will to achieve its goals.
He referred to the “ambitious” goals of the economic modernization visio
n, which aims to achieve a growth rate of 5.5 percent and create one million job opportunities, along with administrative modernization to enable the public sector to provide better services and enhance the role of the private sector in the development process.
The political reform track, he stressed, is very important, and the first stop in it is holding parliamentary elections on September 10 with the aim of enhancing youth and women’s participation in the decision-making process.
He also cited tax reform and fighting tax-evasion and a prudent fiscal and monetary police that kept the dinar strong with a record foreign currency reserve of JD19 billion.
He said Jordan’s economy is impacted by regional turmoil, adding that the kingdom was about to achieve a growth rate of 2.8 percent in the last quarter of 2023 until Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip, when it fell to 2.6. However, “due to a re-evaluation of growth targets for next year, we expect a growth rate of about 2.4 percent, he added.”
He al
so said many sectors, such as transport, have suffered for over a decade and a half as exports to the north were affected due to conditions in Syria.
Khasawneh said the current growth rate does not make a big difference in reducing unemployment, which dropped last year to 21.4 percent, however, “we are moving confidently toward sustainable growth.
Source: Jordan News Agency