“Since King Abdullah himself started the fight against poverty, there is no excuse for not announcing exact figures and statistics of poverty in the country,” he said while addressing media persons at an economic club here Wednesday.
He spoke about AGFUND’s experience in fighting poverty and called for setting up a bank for the poor in the Kingdom like in other Arab countries in order to provide small-scale finances to the needy.
AGFUND has established four such banks in Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria and efforts are under way to set up two more in Sudan and Lebanon.
He said he was looking forward to open a bank in the Kingdom after the successes achieved by the banks in the four countries. “We are ready to open one if requested,” the president said, adding that some businessmen have offered their support for the venture.
He emphasized the need to launch the project as quickly as possible without wasting time. “Any delay in dealing with poverty would create more poor and cause more unemployment. The first step to fight poverty is to create jobs,” he said.
AGFUND intends to spend $500 million on its anti-poverty programs by 2015.
