Preparatory meetings for 25th Egyptian-Jordanian committee kick off

Preparatory meetings for the 25th Egyptian-Jordanian higher committee kicked off here Tuesday.

Egypt's International Cooperation Minister Naglaa el Ahwani and Jordanian Trade Minister Maha Ali are co-chairing the meetings.

Ten agreements and memorandums of understanding have already been reached, as well as implementation programs to boost cooperation between the two countries, said Ali.

She stressed the need to act to achieve more economic and trade gains for both the Jordanian and Egyptian peoples.

The 25th committee meeting reflects keenness of Amman and Cairo to boost bilateral relations at the economic, trade, investment and financial levels, Ali further said.

She touched upon the positive outcome of the 24th session, during which a number of agreements and cooperation protocols were signed and many obstacles facing inter-trade solved.

She said the volume of trade exchange between the two Arab countries reached 656.5 million dollars in 2014, which is 24-percent down from 817.8 million reached in the year before.

Trade exchange during the first quarter of this year amounted to 136.9 million dollars down from 187.6 million during the same period last year, Ali said, adding this is a 27-percent decline.

Both the public and private sectors here and in Cairo should act to prevent a repeat of such drop, the minister urged.

The private sectors should be given a complete chance to contribute to outlining economic cooperation programs and plans, Ali said.

She talked about the investment-friendly climate in Jordan, given its security, stability, economic and political reforms and geographic location.