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.