Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nasser Shraideh and Managing Director of the Belgian Development Agency Jean Van Wetter on Tuesday signed an agreement to establish an office of the agency in the Kingdom, a move towards boosting development cooperation and Jordanian- Belgian partnership.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Umayya Toukan, during the ceremony attended by Belgium Ambassador to Jordan Filip Vanden Bulcken, highlighted the two countries’ ties and the two leaderships’ efforts in this arena.

The establishment of an office for the Belgian Development Agency in Jordan shows the “distinguished” Jordanian-Belgian bilateral ties, he added.

In a Planning Ministry statement, reported by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Shraideh said that the move would contribute in enhancing Jordanian- Belgian cooperation and development relations, notably in the sectors of water, agriculture, digitisation, education, training, recruitment, health, as well as in the private sector.

Opening the office paves the way for further cooperation between Jordan and the agency via facilitating the implementation of donor-funded projects, including the EU and its member states’ agencies, besides mobilising additional funding sources, he added, expressing the Kingdom’s keenness on benefitting from the agency's experiences in various fields.

Highlighting the spread of the agency’s projects worldwide, Shraideh said that Jordan is looking forward to increasing cooperation with the private sector via expertise exchange and supporting SMEs to expand their businesses.

The education sector and providing income-generating opportunities linked to vocational training programmes are among the basic issues that require more attention, the minister said.

Lauding Jordan’s efforts towards hosting the Syrian refugees, the Belgian envoy reiterated his country and EU’s commitment to continue supporting Amman at the social and economic levels.

Van Wetter, for his part, expressed the agency’s readiness to hold development consultations to determine the future interventions that serves the interests of both parties within the framework of international development efforts that third parties may benefit from as well.

The agency has begun the operations related to an EU-funded project via the "Madad" Fund to support host communities in Jordan and Syrian refugees, by linking vocational training with job opportunities, in cooperation with German and Spanish development agencies, he added.

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