AMMAN: The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation on Wednesday signed with the Japanese Embassy in Amman a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to give Jordan a soft loan of approximately US$196 million.
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury, who signed the MoU with Japan’s ambassador, Shuichi Sakurai, said the MoU was sealed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide a $196 million soft loan for a 25-year term with a grace period of up to 7 years and an interest rate of 1.7 percent.
The loan will be disbursed in two payouts of $97.5 million each. The first payout will be transferred after the signing of the agreement, when it goes into effect, while the second payout will be disbursed by the end of 2015. Fakhoury said the agreement aims to improve the country’s financial position and support its development policies by directly funding its budget. The agreement comes in light of the recent visits of His Majesty King Abdullah II to Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Jordan, Fakhoury added.
