AMMAN, JORDAN – A Jordanian ministerial delegation met with a number of Algerian ministers in the North African country on Monday to discuss areas for bilateral cooperation.
The two sides reached an agreement on a roadmap to advance economic, trade, and investment cooperation for the years 2023–2025 or until the meetings of the joint Jordanian–Algerian committee are held.
This is in order to carry out the visions and directives of the two governments as well as the results of King Abdullah II’s visit to Algeria in December.
The road map highlights key cooperation projects with the objective of expanding trade exchanges, inter-investment volume and sectoral cooperation activities.
It also entails launching the Algerian-Jordanian Businessmen Council, ratifying trade and investment agreements, and convening meetings between economic experts and businesspeople from the two nations to discuss potential joint ventures.
The officials also decided to speed up ongoing cooperation projects and look into new opportunities in priority sectors like energy, mining, culture, industry, agriculture, transport, tourism, handicrafts, health, labor and employment, and social security.
It was decided to hold meetings of the current sectoral committees before the end of this year as well as the ninth session of the Jordanian-Algerian Joint Committee in Amman in June this year.
Sector-specific technical committees or collaborative work teams will be established to investigate and monitor bilateral cooperation in areas of shared interest.
Jordan’s Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply, and Minister of Labor Yousef Al Shamali said in a statement Tuesday that the talks between the two countries reflect a shared desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields to serve common interests.
He said the talks between the two countries also reflect on the need to build on the outcomes of the royal visit to Algeria.
He emphasized the importance of forming multiple partnerships in order to address the challenges of food security, supply chains, emergency situations and global geopolitical factors.
“A direct flight line between Amman and Algeria will be launched as of March 9, with two flights per week by Royal Jordanian Airlines and Air Algerie,” the minister said.
In the first 11 months of 2022, Jordanian exports to Algeria totaled US$93.5 million, an increase of 8.1 percent from the corresponding period in 2021.
In the meantime, the Kingdom’s imports from Algeria totaled US$138.5 million, up 52.7 percent from the same period in 2021.