Netherlands working to bolster Jordan’s economy amidst regional turmoil, envoy says

AMMAN — The Netherlands is supporting Jordan’s economy in different ways to deal with the impact of the Syrian crisis, and it is helping in promoting the Kingdom’s investment-friendly climate to Dutch companies, according to the ambassador.

In an interview with The Jordan Times a few days before he concludes his term as the Dutch ambassador to the Kingdom, Paul van den IJssel said that in addition to supporting the relaxed rules of origin agreement to increase Jordanian exports to the EU, his country is also doing more to help Jordan’s economy that was affected by regional turmoil.

“We will have a trade expert coming from Holland”, and he will be based at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply to help the government and companies find their way into Europe, benefiting from the relaxed rules of origin agreement that came into force in July, the ambassador explained.

He said the European market might be “a little bit more complex, or maybe there are regulations that are difficult to tackle”.

 “So, we offer this expert to work with Jordan” to find ways to overcome these challenges, van den IJssel continued.

“We have actively promoted [in the Netherlands] together with [the] Jordanian investment community” investment opportunities for Dutch companies in Jordan, the ambassador said, adding that this was through a meeting with some 100 companies early in November “where we told them about Jordan and the opportunities that it has to offer”.

In addition, a trade mission of these companies is expected to come to the Kingdom to take a look at the potential offered here, according to the Dutch envoy.

Meanwhile, supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access credit is important to bolster the Kingdom’s economy, the diplomat noted.

Thus, the Netherlands opened a credit line for SMEs in Jordan “because we very much believe that SMEs are an important element and a backbone for every economy”, van den IJssel noted.

“They create jobs, they create innovation and we know that one of the problems that SMEs in this country have is access to credit.”

Through funds provided to Jordan, the ambassador said his country is also working to aid efforts to improve vocational training, launching a programme for that purpose this week.

“Many companies have a problem in getting the right people,” he said.

Military cooperation 

The ambassador also spoke about military cooperation between Amman and Amsterdam, noting that there is close collaboration between the two countries in that area in terms of equipment, training, military intelligence and high- level visits.

In addition, both countries, he added, have close cooperation in the field of combating terrorism and discussions on how to deal with foreign fighters who return to their home countries after being influenced by extremist ideologies.

The Netherlands is also a full partner in the coalition against Daesh, van den Ijssel said.

“At the moment, we have no airplanes active and we rotate with Belgium… we help them flying against targets,” the ambassador said, adding that his country also has training forces in Iraq to assist both the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in the fight against extremism.

‘Netherlands unlikely 

to exit EU’

The Netherlands regrets Britain’s exit from the EU, the ambassador said, adding that his country worked within the union with the UK.

Van den Ijssel noted that although there are some people in his country who are not happy with the EU and call for a similar referendum, it is unlikely that the Netherlands will make such a move.

“We are all critical in a way… we see that there are flows in the way the EU works… but I do not think that [a] majority of the Dutch people want to leave the EU.”

The ambassador added that “the EU for us is a lot of things”.

The Netherlands is per capita one of the largest exporters to the EU.

“Having this single market, having this easy access to other markets is extremely important to our country,” he explained.

Moreover, the ambassador added: “We feel that the union is more than just a trade market, it is a set of common values and it is much easier for us to share these common values with large nations than in doing this individually.”