Jordan lauds Kuwait role in accelerating GCC grant's provision

Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Dr. Ibrahim Saif applauded Saturday's Kuwait role in accelerating the provision and spending of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) grant to the Hashemite Kingdom. In a seminar organized by the Jordanian Association for transparency Saturday and themed 'transparency in executing GCC-financed projects' Saturday, Saif unveiled that the Jordanian government have reached agreements with GCC countries on the grant-financed projects. "The total value of the requests to withdraw from the grant to the projects amounted to USD 329 million, including USD 140 million from Kuwait alone," he said. He noted that total value of projects included in state budget of 2012 hit USD 3.175 billion, 63.5 percent of which are financed by the GCC grant. The government is also studying a number of projects to be executed as a part of the development program with a total value of USD 1.825 billion, 36.5 percent of which will be financed by the GCC grant, he pointed out. The total value of finance agreements reached with the GCC grantors accounted for USD 2.619 billion, including nine agreements hammered out with Kuwait at a total value of USD 1.170 billion. "The spending of the grant has accelerated in the past few months thanks to the cooperation of the GCC bodies supervising the use of the grants," Saif said. During a GCC summit in December 2011, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar decided to extend USD five billion in financial aid to development projects in Jordan over a five-year period, with each state contributing USD 1.25 billion.