AMMAN: Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh announced a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday to improve his administration’s performance under IMF-guided economic reforms.
The British-educated former veteran diplomat and palace aide was appointed two years ago to restore public trust over the handling of Covid-19 and defuse anger at successive governments’ failure to halt corruption and deliver prosperity.
The finance, foreign and interior ministers were kept in place in the reshuffle, which changed nearly a third of cabinet ministers overall. Of 11 new ministers, three are women.
It would be the fifth Cabinet shake-up under Al Khasawneh, who was appointed by King Abdullah II in 2020.
Khasawneh has sought to accelerate reforms pushed by King Abdullah to help the oil importing country reverse a decade of sluggish growth hovering at around 2% that was worsened by the pandemic and conflict in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
The government last summer unveiled a plan to attract over $40 billion of investments over the next 10 years. It said it was committed to implementing free market reforms that businessmen say were thwarted under previous conservative administrations. — Reuters
