AMMAN, March 16 (KUNA) -- Jordanian officials Monday underlined importance of a donors' conference to be held in Kuwait end of March to support the Syrian people either internally displaced or living as refugees in neighboring countries.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour called on donor countries to honor development needs of Jordan in order to help the country honor growing demands of the Syrian refugees.
Ensour, during a meeting with representatives of UN agencies, Arab and Western ambassadors, including Kuwait's Hamad Al-Duaij, noted that Jordan launched a USD-2.3-billion appeal last year to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Jordan, hosting the third largest number of Syrian refugees compared with neighboring countries, "has become incapable of facing this challenge by its own." The international support will help Jordan honor the needs of the Syrian refugees, he said.
Jordanian Minister of Planning Emad Fakhouri said Jordan and the UN would soon sign an agreement to establish a credit fund, designed to finance projects for the refugees.
He said Jordan needed USD 2.9 billion to address ramifications of the huge number of refugees.
The March 31 International Pledging Conference for the Syrian people, also known as Kuwait III, will be a good opportunity for Jordan to explain its needs within a UN plan, he said.
Minister of Interior Hussein Al-Majali said eight percent of the Syrian refugees live in camps while the rest in host communities, which thus increase burden on security and services.
Kuwait hosted the first and second aid pledging conferences for Syria in 2013 and 2014. The two conferences were successful and raised USD 3.9 billion in aid pledges, USD 1.5 billion in the first and USD 2.4 billion in the second. Kuwait donated at total of USD 800 million in the two conferences, USD 300 million in the first and USD 500 in the second. (end) hmf.bs