Kuwait has transferred $250 million to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), Finance Minister Suleiman Hafez said Friday.
The minister was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that the funds are Kuwait’s contribution to a $5 billion grant for Jordan that was endorsed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last year.
During a GCC summit in December 2011, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar decided to extend $5 billion over a five-year period to support development schemes in Jordan. Each state will pay $1.25 billion.
The $250 million transferred to CBJ represent the first tranche of the GCC countries’ support for this year.
Last month, Jordan and Kuwait signed a framework agreement to regulate the $1.25 billion grant to be extended by the Gulf state over five years.
Later on the month, Planning and International Cooperation Ministry revealed the list of projects that will be funded by the $1.25 billion Kuwaiti grant over five years.
The list divided the schemes into three categories.
The first category includes capital projects listed in the state budget for the years 2012-2015. The value of the schemes are estimated at $686.9 million, while the second category will include priority projects listed under the Executive Development Programme (EDP) for 2012-2014 worth $483 million.
The third group of projects to be funded by the Kuwaiti grant are mega-projects such as the National Railway Network.
