PM reshuffles cabinet in shakeup to spur IMF-guided reforms

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.

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 percent that was worsened by the pandemic and conflict in neighboring 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.

The traditional conservative establishment had long been blamed for obstructing a modernization drive pushed by the Western-leaning monarch, fearing liberal reforms will erode their grip on power.

Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff