European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Vice President Varel Freeman will start this week a several-day visit to Jordan during which he will participate in the EU-Jordan Association Committee meeting.
During the visit, Freeman and Hildegard Gacek, EBRD managing director for the southern and eastern Mediterranean, will meet with Water and Irrigation Minister Mohammad Najjar, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Alaa Batayneh, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Jafar Hassan and Central Bank Governor Ziad Fariz, according to an EBRD statement.
Freeman will also hold several meetings with businessmen in Amman and Aqaba, the statement said.
The bank will start this month the implementation of technical cooperation projects in Jordan, which has become a member of the EBRD early 2011.
The EBRD’s activities in the Kingdom will focus on developing the private sector, enhancing the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises, improving services provided by municipalities, developing financial markets and improving energy supplies, the statement indicated.
The bank expects to invest 2.5 billion euros in the region annually, according to the statement.
During EBRD’s annual meeting in May 2012, shareholders agreed to the creation of a one billion euro special fund to start investments in Arab countries that witnessed political and democratic changes.
