His Majesty King Abdullah II affirmed on Sunday, during talks with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, that Jordan looks forward to following the advanced Singaporean model in attracting investments, preparing qualified public sector personnel, and improving government performance.

His Majesty expressed interest to develop relations between the Arab world and Asia especially in the economic field, indicating that His visit to Malaysia in the second half of this month, and his patronage of the economic forum that would bring together the Arab Economic Council and its Asian counterparts, come within efforts that aim at promoting ties of cooperation between the Arab private sector and Asian private sector.

"We look forward to the arrival of Singaporean and Asian investors to the Kingdom to benefit from the investment climate provided by the Jordanian economy," His Majesty said during the meeting which was attended on the Jordanian side by the acting prime minister and the ministers of the Hashemite Royal Court, telecommunications and information technology, administrative development, planning and international cooperation, environment and tourism and acting foreign minister and the Jordanian ambassador to Singapore.

The King said that Jordan will provide all facilities to Singaporean and Asian companies willing to cooperate with Jordanian companies to enter the Iraqi market and contribute to rebuilding Iraq.

The two sides also reviewed the latest steps related to the free trade agreement between Jordan and Singapore.

King Abdullah and Tong expressed satisfaction over results of the fourth stage of the negotiations related to the FTA.

Discussions during the meeting also touched on the situation in Palestine and Iraq.

King Abdullah stressed the importance of concerted international efforts to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people caused by the Israeli occupation. He stressed that the world is concerned more than any time, to help the region's peoples to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands.

The prime minister of Singapore on his part, said that his country will place all its experiences at the service of Jordan, whether with regard to the e-government, the government performance, or with regard to investments in general.

Tong said that his country seeks to launch an initiative to develop Arab-Asian ties, especially that it views Jordan as a country that is qualified to assume a major role in this initiative.

He said that his visit to Egypt and Jordan and later to Bahrain, aims at outlining dimensions of this initiative that seeks to establish dialogue, cooperation and understanding among Arabs and Asians with the participation of the private sector, intellectuals and academics.

The meeting was attended on the Singaporean side by Prof. S. Jayakumar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry and the ambassador of Singapore to Egypt and Jordan, Tee Tua Ba.