His Majesty King Abdullah met on Friday with leading figures of Chicago city and reviewed with them the development horizons in the Jordanian economy and reform initiatives in the various fields.



His Majesty said that Jordan is working to achieve an economic growth rate that exceeds 5.5 for the current year adding that the economic growth indicators for the first quarter of this year have shown a possibility for this.



Answering a question on the American doubts on Saudi Arabia as a friend of the United States in the issue of fighting terrorism, the King said that the relation between U.S President and the Saudi Crown prince is good, warm and true adding that Saudi Arabia is committed to fighting terrorism. He added that there is no alternative for supporting and helping Saudi Arabia in fighting terrorism.



His Majesty reaffirmed that fighting terrorism does not mean killing the terrorists but means solving the roots of the problem pointing that neglecting solving the Palestinian cause feeds terrorists who use people's despair.



The King pointed that achieving economic prosperity is one of the means of fighting terrorism and achieving stability in the region and repeated the request of the U.S for a new Marshal project for the Middle East which will take the people out of their despair and poverty as did the original project in West Europe after the Second World War because the Middle East is on a Crossroad and must be helped.



King Abdullah affirmed that Jordan aims at making the silent majority express their opinion and not leave the field for the high sound minority.



Deputy prime minister/ minister of trade and commerce Mohammad Haliqa said that manufacturing textile and garments has a big share in the exports but Jordan looks for more products of full added value like olive oil, other agricultural products and developing software in the field of Information technology.



Answering a question on the productivity of the Jordanian individual, minister of planning and international cooperation Basem Awadallah referred to an IMF study which points that the productivity of the Jordanian worker has increased by 15% within the past two years pointing that the reason might be the new vocational training programs.