Planning Minister meets UNDP Associate Administrator

Amman: Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan met with UN Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Haoliang Xu, in the presence of UNDP's Deputy Representative in Jordan, Majeda Al-Assaf. The meeting focused on enhancing means of joint cooperation to address development and humanitarian issues, according to the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation's website on Monday. During the meeting, they discussed ways to expand Jordan's benefit from the development services provided by the UNDP, including local and economic development programs, development frameworks, capacity-building programs, and institutional support, in line with the economic modernization vision, its executive program, and the public sector modernization roadmap. The topics of institutional and technical capacity building in the areas of supporting policy-making and comprehensive strategic planning and the importance of supporting the program in this aspect were discussed. Toukan gave a briefing on key reform efforts undertaken by the government in economic and administrative modernization aimed at stimulating economic growth and attracting investments to contribute to creating job opportunities for Jordanian youth. She also highlighted the challenges associated with hosting Syrian refugees in the Kingdom, emphasizing the importance of maintaining support from the international community to enable Jordan to continue providing basic services to refugees and host communities in health, education, water, municipal services, and other sectors, especially in light of the continued decline in support for the Jordanian response plan to the Syrian crisis. The Minister of Planning lauded the distinguished partnership with UNDP and the UN organizations working in Jordan, expressing appreciation for their efforts to advance the development landscape in the Kingdom, and emphasized the importance of this visit in enhancing development support and finding innov ative financing windows to provide the necessary funding to support reform efforts in various fields. For his part, the UNDP official commended Jordan's pivotal role in providing humanitarian aid to neighboring countries and its support for adopting innovative financing mechanisms involving the private sector and various development agencies to cover Jordan's financing needs in light of the scarcity of available resources. He stressed the UNDP's readiness to provide the necessary technical and financial support to implement development initiatives that contribute to achieving the economic modernization vision in partnership with the private sector. Source: Jordan News Agency