AMMAN (JT) -- Iraq's Planning Minister Ali Baban Wednesday reiterated that Jordan was a principal partner to Iraq, expressing his appreciation of the Kingdom's support for his country over the past years.
In a statement to the press, Baban highlighted the strong ties between the two countries and called on Arab businessmen to seize economic opportunities available in Iraq.
In reply to a question on providing oil to Jordan, the Iraqi official said, "The problem is that of security conditions and the question of setting up a pipeline between the two countries.
"So far, there is no pipeline," Baban said as he visited the Fourth International Rebuild Iraq Conference, opened by Planning and International Cooperation Minister Suhair Al-Ali on Tuesday.
In a speech at the opening ceremony, Al-Ali confirmed Jordan's commitment to supporting Iraq and its multi-faceted reconstruction efforts.
"Efforts to reconstruct Iraq rank as a top priority within both the public and private sectors," the minister said.
"Jordan is supporting efforts to develop and accelerate economic growth and maintain stability in neighbouring Iraq", the minister said in opening the conference, held in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan, with a vast participation of senior Iraqi officials and specialists in the reconstruction of Iraq.
The two-day event was considered a valuable opportunity to meet with prominent businessmen, decision-makers, as well as senior officials in the official Iraqi administration as well as the donor community.
Al-Ali highlighted the strong ties between the people and governments of the two countries, stressing that a stable and safe Iraq is a Jordanian-Arab priority as much as it is Iraqi.
She noted that the government and people of Jordan have historically stood by the Iraqi people in various challenges they faced.
"In response to His Majesty King Abdullah's directives, the government of Jordan has initiated several steps to achieving an increasingly lucrative investment environment that allows Jordan to fully integrate into the global economy," she said 'This, in turn serves many neighbouring countries including Iraq".
Specifically, Jordan has placed on its priority list constructing a new centre on the Karama borders, expanding and improving Aqaba Port, and creating an economic free zone on the Karama borders.
Al-Ali highlighted the Mafraq Economic Development Zone, recently launched by King Abdullah, as a key project that not only reconfirms the importance of private-public sector partnerships but also as a project that will attract various foreign investments including Iraqi investments to the area.
She underlined the important geographic location of the zone saying it will hopefully contribute to Iraqi reconstruction efforts and will ease trade flow between both countries.
Al-Ali also mentioned several projects that are being conducted by Jordan in cooperation with the government of Iraq, including several training programmes aimed at institutional capacity building and the exchange of expertise funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
To date, the programme has trained over 600 Iraqi government employees in areas of energy, health, statistics, cultural heritage, information technology, environment, water management, criminal evidence, as well as other key areas.
She underscored the importance of a memorandum of understanding aimed at exchanging expertise and knowledge in the areas of aid coordination and international cooperation, between the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation in order to assist in the integration of Iraq into the international community and to assume its well deserved position on the international map.
© Jordan Times 2007
