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Elucidating important issues

Feb 10,2016 - Last updated at Feb 10,2016

The Jordanian leadership and government have done well ahead of and during the February 4 London conference intended to help Syrian refugees and host countries.

During the one-day gathering, donor countries and the international community have shown much understanding of the burden shouldered by the Kingdom in hosting refugees and the country’s regional role at various levels.

Donors pledged $2.1 billion to Jordan in additional grants over three years to help the country cope with the consequences of hosting around 1.3 million Syrian nationals, of whom less than half are registered as refugees with the United Nations.

In addition, Jordan secured pledges to help bridge its financial gap, with donors promising to offer concessionary loans worth $1.9 billion a year until 2018, according to the prime minister and his ministerial team, who met editors in chief of daily newspapers at the Prime Ministry on Wednesday.

Furthermore, donor countries and organisations also pledged to offer Jordan $1 billion over the coming three years to help build more schools in a bid to help absorb Syrian students in government-run schools.

Another achievement was securing $300 million annually over the coming three years to support the overburdened state budget, according to Ensour, who added that one of the most important achievements was to have the European Union agree to reconsider simplifying rules of origin on Jordanian exports for the next 10 years and give the country the same treatment it receives from other world countries, including the United States and Canada.

Such a step will certainly help increase Jordan’s exports to the EU and help adjust the trade balance, which is currently heavily in favour of European countries.

It will also help attract investments and, consequently, create more job opportunities for Jordanians, as well as for Syrian refugees.

The issue of offering job opportunities to Syrian refugees does not seem to be easy to sell in a country that is suffering from high unemployment rates; it is not palatable to the Jordanian public or the media, particularly since the Labour Ministry failed to present this subject clearly.

The prime minister did well to give due attention to this particular issue in his Wednesday meeting with the media. He said that there will be no measures whatsoever to replace Jordanian labourers with Syrians, nor to deprive “qualified” Jordanian applicants of any job opportunities.

Equality in job opportunities will be considered only inside proposed development zones intended to manufacture goods for export to Europe, said the premier, adding that the government is mulling establishing five of these zones across the country. Other than that, priority in employment will be given to Jordanians, while Syrians would be considered for “replacing other foreign labourers”.

Regarding education, the prime minister assured that school buildings will be constructed and equipped in various parts of the country, and not just in the regions that received the bulk of refugees, to make sure that Jordan benefits from these facilities once the refugee issue is over.

Remaining to be solved by Jordan and donor countries are projects to be agreed upon for financing, so as to allow real work to start on the ground soonest. 

The government and concerned departments must be busy preparing the homework for the coming stage. But the main issue of concern is how much of the pledged aid will materialise, knowing that at some previous conferences, donors were generous in making pledges that did not all materialise.

 

What gives reason for optimism was the level of participation in the conference, the seriousness of the host country and organisers, as well as of the world community, particularly Europe, to help refugees stay in the region by offering them the minimum: education, job opportunities, security and the promise of a better life until the conflict in their country is over.

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