Germany grants Jordan $134m soft loan

The Jordanian government announced on Monday that it had signed three agreements with its German counterpart to fund projects in the water and education sectors in the Kingdom worth $133.4 million. Under the agreements, $23.2 million were allocated as part of the German government’s commitment to new aid to Jordan for 2018, while the rest, worth $110.2 million was allocated as “very soft” loans in the aid pledged by Germany to Jordan in 2017 during official talks last year.

The agreements were signed by Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Mary Kawar, on the Jordanian side, and the director of the Middle East at the German Construction Bank, Stephan Zeip on the German side, in the presence of German Ambassador to Amman Birgitta Siefker-Eberle.

The two sides agreed to discuss the development cooperation programme for this year, 2018, during October to agree on the financial and technical assistance for priority development projects for the year 2019.

Read: Gaza hospitals to stop services over fuel crisis

Kawar said in a press statement after the signing that the aid agreements will be directed to finance priority development projects in the sectors of water, sanitation, and education in line with national priorities.

German Ambassador to Jordan Birgitta Siefker-Eberle expressed her country’s readiness to continue supporting Jordan, especially about the priority sectors, and to help it overcome the consequences of the Syrian crisis.

According to official Jordanian data, Germany is the second largest donor country to the kingdom after it committed itself, during the annual talks held last year, to provide grants, technical assistance, and soft loans for 2017 with a total amount of about $696.1 million, which includes development (financial and technical) and humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees and host communities.