The electricity tariff won’t affect about 93 percent of the population,” the prime minister stressed. At the same time, the new tariff won’t provide subsidy to the financially able groups, and revenues it generates will be redirected immediately to reducing the tariff on productive sectors, including industry, agriculture, hotels and hospitals, as well as the commercial sector to enhance their competitiveness indicators.
“This will enable more investment in these sectors and empower them to achieve healthy growth, create more jobs, and raise export capacities of goods and services. Of course, there are many details to deal with, and we are working to address them, and based on that, we said that they will be put into practice in the first quarter of next year.”
“As for oil, there have been a lot of previous explorations, and it is unreasonable to rely on the “we have undiscovered oil in Jordan” narrative, and companies that previously came and made explorations didn’t reach data confirming its existence in commercial quantities. Nevertheless, through our national capabilities, we have re-explored and rehabilitated the Hamza oil field’s wells and practically raised the production of this well from a zero state to nearly 2000 barrels per day at certain times, but this does not put us at all on any state close to self-sufficiency or becoming an oil country. The explorations will continue.”
JRTV: Mr. Prime Minister, what about administrative reform and upholding values of integrity and transparency?
PM: Certainly, our main lever is administrative reform, and the public sector, we are proud of and of those working in it, was the mainstay and pillar for achieving development in the Kingdom, but with different methods and times, there has become a required and necessary expansion of the private sector role, as the public sector cannot continue to expand beyond its capabilities, and therefore it is necessary to move to another work mentality among many workers in the public sector, to believe that the private sector and its workers are key partners in development and in adopting prudent approaches that address our basic issues and central challenges, mainly poverty and unemployment.
Today, about 130,000 people enter the labor market annually, and the public sector, with the best assumptions, cannot absorb more than 6-7 thousand jobs, most of which are in the health and education sectors, while the private sector, in its current state, cannot absorb more than 25-30 thousand jobs.
We have 65 percent of current expenditures directed to salaries and pensions, and the government is thinking of enabling the private sector to work in a healthy environment and atmosphere, and to establish in the mindset of those who work in the public sector that the private sector is a key partner in the development process.
JRTV: Mr. Prime Ministe, how do you currently assess the relationship with the US administration?
PM: I can say with utmost confidence that the relationship with the US administration is excellent, and His Majesty was the first leader from this region to pay an official visit to the United States of America, and His Majesty’s visit was exceptional by all standards.
The US administration fully appreciates the central role of His Majesty the King and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It also highly appreciates His Majesty’s views and strategic visions related to challenges facing the region and leverage them. The relationship with the United States is distinguished on the bilateral level, as well as on economic aid, as well as the level of open and frank talk regarding various regional issues that interest us both.
The relationship with the current US administration is very excellent and comes as an extension of an exceptional, strategic and historical relationship that brings us together with the United States. This relationship has always helped us achieve strategic goals that serve various regional and national issues, foremost among which is the Palestinian issue and reaching the two-state solution, which achieves the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, and the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state on the pre-June 4, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and also within the framework of the Hashemite custodianship, which His Majesty ably and distinguishably exercises, in order to always work to ensure that the historical situation in the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif is not to be compromised in any way and under any circumstances.
JRTV: What about the new Israeli government?
PM: We have a peace treaty with Israel, and our relationship with the new Israeli government is, of course, governed by the framework of this treaty, and it will be governed by the methodology and approaches that the Israeli government chooses to adopt in dealing with many issues that affect the Kingdom, whether in a bilateral or regional context. We are open as long as the goal remains in front of our eyes in terms of achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, achieving the two-state solution I’d mentioned, preserving Islamic and Christian holy sites, the Hashemite custodianship, and supporting the legitimate Palestinian right within the framework of the two-state solution.
JRTV: We have recently witnessed several Jordanian moves towards Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, and many Arab integration projects, whether in electricity or gas. Let us talk about this role.
PM: Certainly, we now have institutionalized the trilateral mechanism launched by His Majesty more than two years ago, which included Egypt and Iraq, and His Majesty the King took the initiative to launch this mechanism to achieve common economic interests and benefits of the three countries.
This mechanism began as non-institutional, then gradually it was institutionalized, and several summits were held for the leaders of the three countries in Cairo, Amman, New York and Baghdad. In Amman, it was agreed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the host country would undertake the secretarial work of this very promising trilateral mechanism, and today, there is talk of an oil pipeline extending from Basra through Jordanian territories to Aqaba and then to Egyptian territories.
The Iraqi government is in the process of launching bids to ensure the completion of this line, which provides many promising opportunities including petrochemical industries that benefit us in Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
For its part, Jordan has accomplished everything necessary to establish the industrial zone on the border with Iraq, which has recently completed most of the procedural aspects related to it to establish this industrial zone extending on the borders of the two countries, to serve as an industrial and logistical zone for the three countries.
The prospects for this relationship with regard to issues such as electricity interconnection and energy export are very large and can be built upon, and this trilateral mechanism, by the way, is an open mechanism for those who are interested in entering and participating in it according to the comparative advantages base available at each party.
In fact, the pioneer of the idea and the owner of this issue is His Majesty the King in all honesty and fairness, and this relationship can be integrated with the trilateral relationship between Jordan, Cyprus and Greece, as well as Egypt and its trilateral relationship with Cyprus and Greece, and behind that our relationship with Europe and the European Union is a unique and distinguished relationship based on respect and credibility that His Majesty the King established through his wise and prudent policies and his high credibility with the whole world.
Source: Jordan News Agency