Jordan, Syria to sign cooperation agreements

AMMAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and Syria are scheduled to sign several agreements to boost cooperation in different fields during the joint Jordanian-Syrian committee meetings to start on Sunday, the state-run Petra News Agency reported Saturday.

Agreements will cover fields of energy, planning, education, culture, holding exhibitions, among others, Muntaser Oqla, secretary general of Jordan's Ministry of Industry and Trade was quoted by Petra as saying.

The series of meetings will be headed by Jordan's Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and his Syrian counterpart Mohammad Etri. The meetings were primarily scheduled to take place in September but were later postponed after an agreement between the two countries.

During the meetings, officials from both countries will explore prospects of bolstering cooperation in economic sectors and increasing bilateral trade.

Jordan's revenues from exports to Syria declined by 12 percent during the first seven months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ).

Jordan's exports to Syria stood at 101.98 million Jordanian dinars (about 143.79 U.S. dollars) during the January to July period of 2009 compared to 115.87 million Jordanian dinars during the same period last year, the CBJ figures showed.

Syria is the third largest Arab country that imports from Jordan after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. (1 U.S. dollar = 0.709 Jordanian dinar)