18-Oct-2015

AMMAN------ October18, 2015--------The Public- Private Partnership Forum discussed the Public- Private Partnership Law in Jordan at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum with the participation of Mr. Edward Kallon, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Jordan, Zena Ali Ahmad, UNDP Country Director in Jordan, and consultants from the Ministry of Finance.

 
HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of the Economic Policy Development Forum stressed that Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) and the United Nations established the Partnership Forum as an initiative to engage business institutions of Jordan in promoting human development around the Kingdom in partnership and coordination with government sector representatives.

“The Forum was a response to His Majesty King Abdullah II’s continuous call for partnership between public and private sectors valuing the Partnership Council and its law," he said.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also called for the participation of the private sector in the Partnership Council with a view to the contribution of this sector in the economic development of Jordan. He also added that he would send a letter to the competent bodies proposing the inclusion of a representative of the private sector in this Council. 

“Jordan faces many challenges of which it may not be able to overcome by its own as it needs to activate cooperation between government and private sector in order to achieve the sustainable development,” he stated.

He also referred to the cooperation between TAG-Org and the United Nations represented by UN – Habitat with co-presidency and joint administration, the first of its kind at the world level, which was commended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, pointing out to the possibility of building on it and cooperating with the government agencies through it. 

For his part, Kallon expressed his pride of the public-private cooperation in Jordan and their efforts to activate ways of their partnership. He pointed out that this partnership achieves the sustainable development which reflects on the community indicating that this partnership in Jordan aims at tackling development challenges. 

“This initiative and strategic partnership aims at utilizing the energies of partners toward more sustainable development in Jordan as the private sector is now a representative and partner in achieving sustainable development side by side with donors, UN system in Jordan, NGOs and governments. Institutions of private sectors are active and effective parties in the national economy,” he added

He also said “UNDP’s major strategy is to encourage partnership between public and private sectors. It applies it on business sector as one of the program’s commitments to develop and promote economy and human resources in Jordan simultaneously."

At the end of his speech, UN Resident Coordinator indicated that the United Nations hopes from this partnership that every side assumes its responsibilities and new legislations are issued to promote sustainable development and intensify efforts with the private sectors. He added “the world needs to enhance trust and cooperation between public and private sectors to achieve sustainable development and provide job opportunities for citizens referring to the importance of the private sector’s role in securing jobs. 

Meanwhile, Representative of Public-Private Partnership Unit at the Ministry of Finance Osama Suleiman and Legal Counsel Bashar Al-Btoush addressed the highlights of the Public-Private Partnership Law which is consistent with the economic approach of Jordan and in line with the economic initiatives that stressed the importance to increase and enhance the services provided by government by attracting investments and expertise of private sector. 

They also represented the most prominent advantages and public targets of the partnership along with the legal framework for the implementation of partnership projects within the law and the tasks of the Partnership Council including determining the technical requirements to be submitted to the government agency for any partnership project, identifying the forms of applications for the partnership projects, receiving the applications of the partnership projects from government agencies and recording them and examining the submitted projects applications as per the model prepared by the unit. 

It should be noted that the Public-Private Partnership Forum was already launched in last June by the Economic Policy Development Forum and UNDP in order to stimulate business enterprises to support the goals and issues for UNDP, Government of Jordan, civil society and donors with a focus on cooperation and teamwork.