Banking & Finance Japan extends $100m loan to Jordan for power reforms By Reuters September 4, 2023 Unsplash.com India says connecting its power grid to Saudi Arabia and the UAE will help it supply power to Europe Japan extended a $100 million loan to help Jordan’s electricity sector reforms as part of Tokyo’s support for the kingdom’s International Monetary Fund (IMF(-guided reforms, officials said on Sunday. “Japan will continue our support for Jordan in its economic and financial reforms and further modernisation,” foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said in joint remarks with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Al Safadi at the start of a visit to Jordan. Japan is one of Jordan’s main donors, contributing over $4 billion in loans, aid and technical support in recent decades. Jordan’s King Abdullah visited Tokyo in April where he discussed a new package of economic aid and Japanese assistance in financing a major desalination plant on the Red Sea to help ease the country’s chronic water shortages. Hayashi will head to Egypt on Monday and later fly to Saudi Arabia. Japan relies on the GCC states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – for over 90 percent of its crude oil. During a trip to the region last month, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida met GCC secretary general Jasem Mohamed Al Budaiwi and agreed to resume negotiations on a free trade agreement. The foreign ministers are expected to discuss the trade talks as well as possible co-operation on next-generation energy technologies.
