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Jordan Inaugurates 50MW Wind Power Plant

Jordan Inaugurates 50MW Wind Power Plant
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Jordan Inaugurates 50MW Wind Power Plant

Jordan Inaugurates 50MW Wind Power Plant

Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala Zawati inaugurated Friday a new wind power plant in Tafileh governorate, southwest of Amman, at a total cost of $102 million.

During the inauguration ceremony, Zawati said the Ministry has been developing an energy strategy to keep pace with growth in power demand in conjunction with efforts to diversify energy sources and reduce costs.

Jordan focuses on providing energy sources from local and eco-friendly resources to ensure energy security and independence, stressed Zawati.

She added that the Kingdom aims at increasing the contribution of renewable energy to the total energy mix to 10 percent by 2020, about 20 percent of the consumed electricity in the country.

The Minister pointed out that Jordan is currently working on implementing the objectives of the energy strategy approved in 2007 to use the sun and wind energy to generate 1,600 MW by 2019 and 2,400 MW by 2020.

These projects will be implemented and account for about 20 percent of electricity generation by 2020.

“There are currently about 800 MW of wind and solar projects operating in the Kingdom, and the progress in the renewable energy sector has made Jordan a leading country in the region," Zawati explained.

She praised the performance of Korean companies in Jordan and their role in contributing to increase Jordan's capacity in the field of energy and ensuring security of electricity supply, which constitutes an important economic pillar.

South Korea's Ambassador to Jordan Lee Boom-Yun, for his part, underscored the importance of cooperation with Jordan and hailed the role of his country's companies in promoting alternative resources of energy.

Officials from, two Korean sponsors, KOSPO and Daelim, presented details of the project.

"The successful financial closure of the project took place in September at a total cost of about $102 million," they said.

They expected to connect the project to the electricity network of the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) during 2020, which will produce about 145 GWh per year.

Zawati, on Wednesday, also laid the foundation stone for solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant, dubbed "AM Solar," which cost $50 million, at Madounah area, east of Amman.

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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Lebanese officials hope to meet international bondholders to talk about restructuring debt in the next 12 months but are not planning any meetings at the World Bank/IMF Spring meetings next week, finance minister Yassin Jaber said on Tuesday.

Jaber spoke to Reuters just days before travelling to Washington for the Spring meetings - one of the biggest gatherings for financial policy makers and investors - where Lebanon will seek to show it has made progress on economic reforms to address the underlying causes of its financial crash.

Lebanon's economy began unravelling in 2019 after years of corruption and profligate spending by the country's ruling elite, and tipped into a sovereign default on its $31 billion of outstanding international bonds in March 2020.

Asked whether he planned to meet international bondholders in the next year, Jaber said, "definitely, definitely, this is as they say the elephant in the room."

"You can't escape it in the end. Lebanon is keen to resolve this issue, God willing," he said.

But the country needed to make progress on reforms - including reforming the banking sector and boosting government revenues through reforms to tax systems and customs collection - before it could start talks, Jaber said.

"We wanted, first of all, to do our homework, to put the whole reform process on the right track to get started. You can't have a house in total disorder and then say, 'I want to negotiate,'" he said.

The Lebanese delegation to the spring meetings will be the first outing at an IMF/World Bank meeting for Lebanon's new government, which took the reins in February and pledged to seek a new IMF programme. Jaber said it would be the first time a Lebanese finance minister attends in more than a decade.

Economy Minister Amer Bisat is scheduled to give an outlook on Lebanon's economy at a JPMorgan investor conference held on the sidelines, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The creditor group - which includes the heavyweight funds Amundi, Ashmore, BlackRock, BlueBay, Fidelity and T-Rowe Price as well as a group of smaller hedge funds - has recently appointed a financial advisor in preparation for debt talks.

Shortly after the bondholder group originally formed in 2021, it said it held a "blocking stake" of more than 25% across a number of Lebanon's bonds, making it a critical player in any debt restructuring.

The chunk of the bonds are also held by domestic commercial banks or the Lebanese central bank, which bought $3 billion of debt directly from a previous government in 2019.

Lebanon's bonds trade at deeply distressed levels of around 15-16 cents in the dollar. However, that is a sharp uptick from the single digits they traded in before Israel's military campaign badly weakened Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, long viewed as an obstacle to overcoming Lebanon's political paralysis.

In January, Lebanon's cabinet extended the statute of limitations on legal action over Eurobonds for another three years. Jaber said the move "reassured the bondholders".