His Majesty King Abdullah II has said it is high time for the government to give greater attention to our national program so that we can go ahead in our march to build a stronger and more forfeited Jordan."



"Our belief in the necessity to continue work for developing national economy, securing honorable life and a promising future for our people makes it imperative on us to give our primary concern to this issue," said King Abdullah in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Faisal al Fayez on Tuesday.



"The Jordanian citizen has been at the core of our attention from the first moment we assumed our responsibilities and with God help we have been able, over the past few years, to put our national economy on the right track," the King said.



"The road ahead is still long and we need more genuine efforts from you and your colleagues to attain our vision on future of Jordan through speeding up the pace of work and accomplishment to realize objectives contained in the letter of designation," King Abdullah said.



The royal message brings to focus a number of remarks on vital sectors such as education, investment, administrative development, social and economic reform, tourism and agriculture that all need to given due attention by the Prime Minister and his ministerial team.



Investment is the key motor for economic development and increasing job opportunities. We hope for greater growth in investment according to well-studied programs that can assess points of strength and weakness and the role of our investment organization, the King said.



We still hear about some impediments including administrative bureaucracy and therefore we would to emphasize once again on developing the one-stop-shop investment procedures, said the King stressing the necessity to create a health economic environment and an appropriate investment climate for the private sector which is the main dynamo of economic growth.



Economic development should go side by side with administrative reform plans that depend on our own resources, the King said. Administrative development and modernization is a continuous process that should award the hardworking, stimulate the hesitant and discard the corrupt, added the King, who also said administrative performance is still suffering from clear imbalance. The level of government performance should be based on developing effective mechanisms for decision making and implementing these decisions, the King said.



On human resources development, the royal message said a council has been established for education and technical and vocational training with the aim of creating a qualitative leap in the field of training and upgrading level of technical and vocational training to produce qualified cadres that could meet demands of the labor market. But so far we have
seen the desired results from this council and there still some vocational specializations that are needed by the labor market, the King said in his letter. There are about 5000 jobs available in industrial cities but people are still seeking government jobs, he added.



On education, King Abdullah said despite the good achievements realized in the educational sector, we are still facing the true challenge and that is introducing state-of -the art technology to our dear Jordan because advanced technology has become the decisive factor in measuring peoples' progress and prosperity. The starting point should be in preparing cadres capable of achieving this great transformation that requires the creation of technology-based infrastructure, the King said.



In his letter, the King called for changing methods of teaching, improving school environment particularly in less privileged areas, and for reconsidering teaching programs and plans in higher education institutes.



On religious preaching, King Abdullah said religious preaching and guidance should take into consideration the emerging economic, social and democratic changes and developments. Tolerance of Islam should figure high and Moslems should expound the essence of the Islamic religion, promote moderate thinking. They should also explain to others that they are not responsible for the misunderstanding of Islam by others.



The citizen's health should be one of the top responsibilities of the government and therefore immediate measures should be taken to improve health care and respond to people's need of medical services, King Abdullah said calling for conducting a comprehensive and realistic study on health insurance. The King said he was following up the process of developing and modernizing health centers. Although economic growth
rates have increased in recent years, yet people have not felt this rise in the quality of life and this may be because of the marked increase in population growth which could overshadow the positive impact of economic growth, the King said.



Stressing the importance of the tourism sector and its pivotal role in enhancing economic development, , King Abdullah called for more government procedures to implement the already approved national strategy for tourism.



On agriculture, the King said we are awaiting for more well-studied procedures to implement the national strategy for agricultural development. The agricultural sector is specially important as it represent a major resource of income for a large segment of the population and has a direct impact on people's lives, the King said. We still see the need for greater
coordination with the private agricultural sector to overcome problems impeding agricultural development particularly those related to marketing and quality of production, the King said.



Development of governorates should be led and directed by governors, who are armed with knowledge and experience. Therefore development programs in various governorates should be assessed to see how much they have improved living conditions of local communities, the King said.