Japan grants Jordan $16.4m to mitigate refugee crisis impact

AMMAN — Jordan and Japan on Tuesday signed a 1.8 billion yen ($16.4 million) grant agreement to mitigate the impact of hosting more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees.

The additional grant, signed outside the framework of bilateral assistance, will be directed to purchase equipment and services for the ministries of water and municipal affairs.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury and Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Shuichi Sakurai signed the agreement.

Fakhoury thanked Japan’s government for its continuous support to the Kingdom.

“We look forward to starting immediate implementation of the programmes that are directed to two critical sectors,” he said.

The minister added that the grant is one of the outcomes of the London donor conference held on February 4 to support Syrian refugee hosting countries and the Jordan Compact.

This grant, Fakhoury said, would contribute to improving and supporting “government services in priority sectors for host communities”.

Japan, he added, provided Jordan with around $1.005 billion in the period between 1999 and 2015. Of the total, $474.72 million is in grants, and $530.4 million is in concessional loans, in addition to the technical assistance that the Japanese International Cooperation Agency offers.

Meanwhile, Sakurai stressed his country’s commitment to supporting Jordan to share the burden of hosting Syrian refugees, and to contribute to the future and stability of the region.

“We highly appreciate Jordan’s stance towards hosting refugees in spite of the mounting pressure on the country’s various systems, infrastructure and already limited resources,” the ambassador said.

“I would like to reiterate that Japan will continue making our best efforts to further strengthen the excellent bilateral relations with our best friend, and I also wish that this new grant would contribute to the further development and prosperity [of] the government and the people of Jordan,” he noted.

According to an embassy statement released on Tuesday, Japan has extended approximately $230 million worth of bilateral support to Jordan, and about $92 million to UN and international organisations in Jordan for projects related to the Syrian crisis since 2015 to date.