Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday, July 20, urged the Group of Eight (G-8) summit convened in Italy to help ease Jordan's foreign debt, which stands at around seven billion dollars.
"The summit must deal positively with the economic challenges faced by Jordan by lifting the burden of its foreign debt," Abdullah said in a message addressed to the summit's host, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"The Jordanian economy is facing pressure as a result of the situation in the region and the (UN) embargo on Iraq," the king said in his message. Iraq was one of Jordan's key trading partners before the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and subsequent embargo. "This pressure has negative consequences on Jordan's drive to economic reform," the king said.
He recalled that the leaders of the world's main industrialized nations, who met at a G-8 summit in Cologne, Germany, in 1999, had called on Jordan's creditors to help provide Amman with economic aid, including debt relief.
At the time Jordan was hoping the G-8 summit would secure forgiveness of up to 50 percent of its foreign debt, which now stands at around seven billion dollars.
Jordan's main creditors, headed by Japan, are among the countries represented in the G-8. After the Cologne summit of 1999 many struck deals with Amman to reschedule part of the debt or convert part into investments. ― (AFP, Amman)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
