Your Excellency Prime Minister Ali Abu Al-Ragheb, may God bless you It is with pleasure that we convey our greetings and sincerest wishes to you and to your fellow members of the Council of Ministers.

Our belief has always been profound in the importance of investing in human being, developing and attending to his capabilities, and extending firm roots of confidence as our people see the economy advance steadily and promisingly.

We have also been anxious to see our public institutions, involved in civil service, establish work traditions carrying all the advanced and civilized concepts that the expression — “civil service” — stands for. Civil Service institutions have been established to respond to the needs of citizens and investors, by providing the required core service in a distinctively excellent and civilized manner that depicts our legacy and Arab-Islamic identity that is built on good conduct, amity, perfect work, and flawless performance.

We indicated this clearly in our first Throne Speech, we delivered in 1999, when we specified that our Government shall proceed with concrete steps to restructure and modernize the administration, eliminate bureaucracy, update and simplify procedures and employ an institutionalized approach based on team work, thus opening the way for administrative cadres and leaderships capable of innovation and excellent performance.

We take pride in the fact that three quarters of the Jordanian society are from youth, who demonstrate allegiance to their Jordanian Homeland and Arab nation. We aspire to provide this generation with the best services through Governmental institutions, with which they deal. Our objective in this respect is to enhance the concepts of belonging and good citizenship and to stress that civil service is an arena for excellence, giving, commitment and precision. Thus, we depict a bright image of Jordan to whoever deals with Jordanian institutions from within the country or abroad.

Trusting in the Almighty God, I have decided -based on the concept of civil service, and to stimulate civil servants to raise the standard of their work and firmly establish transparency- to establish an award to be called the “King Abdullah II Award for Excellence in Government Performance and Transparency”, with the aim of enhancing the role of the public sector in the service of all sectors of the Jordanian society, as well as the investment community. This will be accomplished through disseminating awareness of the concepts of total quality management and distinguished performance. The Award will highlight the exceptional efforts of public sector institutions and show their accomplishments in developing their own systems and services. We intend for this Award to be the highest award for excellence in the public sector at the national level.

I have entrusted His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein with the task of chairing this Award's Board of Trustees, which will have His Excellency, the Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court as its Deputy Chairman. Other members of the Board of Trustees are: His Excellency the Minister of Social Development, His Excellency the Secretary General of the Prime Ministry, His Excellency Mr. Fadi Ghandour, and His Excellency Dr. Rif'at Fa'ouri. His Excellency the Director of Royal Court's Economic and Development Department shall serve as the Board's rapporteur.

Within two months from now, the Board of Trustees shall submit a detailed report on the Award's program. To do so, the Board may seek help from local and international expertise in this area, in terms of the criteria, categories, evaluation mechanizms and the areas to be covered by the Award. This shall be carried out in accordance with a gradual scheme that starts with some institutions directly involved in dealing with citizens and investors and proceeding progressively to cover all our Governmental institutions.

I pray to the Almighty God to safeguard our beloved Jordan and to grant us success in our efforts to achieve the aspirations of our people for prosperity, progress and reaping the fruits of sustainable development for,