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AMMAN — The private sector is and should always be a key partner in enhancing development in the Arab region, a top UN official said, highlighting the efforts Jordan has exerted in that direction.

In an exclusive interview with The Jordan Times as part of her regional tour, UNDP Arab States Deputy Director Sarah Poole commended the achievements made by the Kingdom in its implementation of the Sustainable Agenda 2030, especially in terms of inclusive growth.

“Since the start of the Syrian crisis, Jordan has been bearing a huge burden and has yet managed to build on its national capacities to enhance communities’ resilience both for the refugees and the local communities,” she noted, highlighting the government’s inclusion of local communities in its resilience approach.

The UN official on Monday took part in the signing of an agreement between the UN Development Programme and Zain Jordan which entailed the endorsement and recognition of the corporate sustainability programmes being implemented throughout the years.

"UNDP's work aims to engage all partners in the reform agenda for sustainable development, and not solely focus on humanitarian aid,” Poole pointed out, stressing the need to “find innovative ways to support community based resilience within the population itself.”

"The response to the Syrian crisis, both in Jordan and the region as a whole, needs to follow a medium- and longer-term vision, which includes all areas of work including livelihood work opportunities, women’s rights, civil society participation, youth, and other issues,” she said, highlighting the relevance of integrated partnerships with all sectors to foster participatory discussions and inputs.

“Contrary to our past strategy, which was much more segmented through sectorial projects, we are now striving to bring all stakeholders together, both public and private, to address the points of tension and enhance social cohesion in society in a dynamic integrated approach,” Poole noted, highlighting the strong partnerships existent among all UN agencies in the Kingdom.

“As a global entity composed of numerous agencies, we cannot rely on a top down approach; we must rather provide support and facilitation to convene all groups so they can identify their needs and develop localised, participatory solutions to their obstacles,” she continued, praising Jordan’s efforts in “contextualising the global development agenda to its local, national and regional needs and challenges”.

“This agreement with ZainJo, which has been one of the earliest private sector's adapters of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Jordan, will pave the way in strengthening and deepening further partnerships between the UN and private entities,” she commented, noting that “Jordan will also be better equipped to leverage the rich potential of emerging technologies".

Acknowledging the number of challenges still facing the region and the Kingdom in particular, she highlighted Jordan’s continuous efforts to integrate SDGs in its governmental policies and frameworks, in collaboration with various UN country teams.

 “During my visit to the Kingdom, I was able to witness a number of innovative partnerships between the government, the private sector and local and international organisations, which are concrete proof of the success of the SDGs' collaborative implementation,” she concluded.

AMMAN — Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani on Thursday reconfirmed that the US decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem is “null and void”, noting that it lacks legal status, harms the peace process and only serves extremist organisations.

Momani’s remarks came during his weekly interview on the Jordan Television’s morning show “News and Dialogue”, in response to a question on a tweet by US President Donald Trump saying that Washington plans to relocate its embassy in May. 

The minister, who is also the government spokesperson, noted that the absence of a just solution to the Palestinian issue is causing despair and feeding extremism in the region, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Jordan has always stressed and will continue to affirm the international consensus on the invalidity of the US decision, he underscored, adding that the resolution was unilateral and will neither serve the peace process nor contribute to a just settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

Replying to a question about the replacement of US troops in Syria with Arab forces, Momani said that official stances cannot be built on information circulated on media outlets.

He added that the Kingdom’s stance towards the Syrian crisis has always called for a political solution based on UN resolutions that guarantee the unity of Syrians and the territorial integrity of the country.

Locally, he described talks on amendments to the Elections Law as a “civilised national status”, highlighting that the matter is still under negotiations among political and parliamentary figures.

This phase has to take enough time and go through all required efforts to reach certain ideas that political powers can discuss so as to serve the political reform process, the minister pointed out. 

As for bank robberies, Momani condemned the people taking to social media to express their sympathy with robbers, describing sympathisers as “criminals against themselves and their society”.

In this regard, he said that ensuring security for banks and financial institutions requires cooperation between the sector and official organisations through a security system that guarantees protection and safety for all financial institutions.

Asked about hybrid vehicles, Momani said that the government granted merchants a month to finalise clearance for their hybrid vehicles, noting that the government’s policy on this type of cars has achieved its goals and led to an increase in their number in the Kingdom. 

The government seeks to encourage fully electric cars, the minister added, pinning hopes for such a move to contribute to increasing their number in light of their role in positively reflecting on the environment, infrastructure and reducing fuel consumption.

AMMAN — The government on Wednesday halted the decision to open the door for investments in pharmacies coming from non-pharmacists and companies owned by professionals out of the field, according to the Jordanian Pharmacists Association (JPhA). 

The decision comes in contrast to the draft system for the licensing of pharmaceutical institutions, which is currently under revision by the Legislative Council.

In an interview on Thursday, JPhA President Zeid Kilani told The Jordan Times that the government’s decision builds on a meeting held by the union last Monday, where the representatives provided the Legislative Council with several examples of countries where the legislation on pharmacies does not allow investments from outside the sector. 

“It is worth noting that the situation of those countries which have succeeded in allowing such investments is very different from the situation we are experiencing in the Kingdom,” Kilani said, explaining that “while countries such as the US, UK or Netherlands were suffering from a lack of pharmacies, Jordan has one of the highest rate of pharmacies per capita”.

“Pharmacy is a profession, and allowing investments coming from outside the sector would turn it into a business, leading to conflicts of interests and malpractice at the expense of the wellbeing of the Jordanian people,” Kilani stressed.

The JPhA held a second meeting on Thursday in the presence of Health Minister Mahmoud Sheyyab and Minister of Justice Awad Abu Jarad to discuss the need to increase the minimum distance between pharmacies. 

“Jordan is currently suffering from clusters of pharmacies concentrated in the same location, while citizens based in other areas have to take transportation from their homes to access a pharmacy,” Kilani told The Jordan Times, stressing that “the minimum distance between pharmacies should be raised to 500 metres if we want all citizens to be able to access the service while preventing competition and malpractice”.

Kilani also noted that the methods used to measure the distance between pharmacies should be changed, as techniques used so far allow “human errors”, while a GPS measurement system between coordinates would be more accurate.

“It is surprising to see the government refusing to adopt this measure, especially considering King Abdullah’s mandate to adopt technology to enhance policies and procedures,” Kilani concluded. 

AMMAN — A book highlighting the main challenges faced by Jordan and the WANA region was launched on Thursday by the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute and Friedrich-Ebert-Stitfung (FES), under the patronage of HRH Prince Hassan.

“A Region in Motion: Reflections from West Asia-North Africa” gathers a selection of articles produced by several researchers of WANA Institute through 2017.

 Commenting at the book launch Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf said: “The challenges facing Jordan and the WANA region should not be considered in isolation as local governance challenges are intertwined with geopolitical challenges.”

Following the presentation of a range of challenges stemming from the regional instability, authors outlined a set of recommendations and possible solutions addressed to policy makers. 

“Never before has it been more important to look at what is happening in the present and understand it to better prevent it in the future,” said WANA Institute’s Director Erica Harper. 

Issues covered in the book include the rise of violent extremism, the role of civil society, the Syrian refugee crisis, women empowerment in rural areas or climate change, among others. 

For Lara Nassar, a senior WANA researcher in sustainable development, the aim of the research was “to try to bridge the gap between local communities and the government”.  

The authors’ work was based on extensive conversations with members of the civil society, local NGOs and think tanks, with the aim of compiling evidence based data from the region on various topics. 

One of the main challenges encountered by the researchers was to analyse the spread of violent extremism threat, according to the authors, who also provided a set of recommendations to prevent the rise of Jordanians joining armed groups. 

“The Jordanian youth should be part of the political process and should be represented in different government platforms,” said Mahmoud Nabulsi, team leader of the civil society branch of WANA Institute, adding “we should have a governmental programme aimed at graduates who usually have to wait for a couple of years before getting a job due to the high rates of unemployment, leaving them to become prey to armed groups.”

Nabulsi called on policy makers present at the launch to create policies addressed to youngsters.

 The WANA team also highlighted the differences between governorates in Jordan, especially in terms of gender issues and socioeconomic situations. 

“We discovered that Maan, Al Salt and Irbid are pockets of violent extremism,” said Neven Bondokji, team leader of countering violent extremism at WANA Institute. 

Funded by FES Jordan and Iraq, the research will have a “positive impact” on neighbouring countries’ researchers, according to FES Iraq resident director Tim Petschulat, who said “The understanding of the Jordanian society will help us to better collaborate with them on regional issues as this work is based on knowledge from the region by the region.” 

AMMAN — People are responding and showing cooperation to a municipal initiative that is ridding the streets of the capital from abandoned vehicles, an official said on Wednesday, noting that scores of cars have already been removed this year by their owners. 

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is scheduled to remove 450 abandoned vehicles from Amman’s streets this year, Raed Haddadin, head of GAM’s construction monitoring department, said, noting that dozens of the already-spotted abandoned cars have been removed.

 “GAM issued warnings to owners of abandoned cars found parked and abandoned on the sides of the streets. People have actually responded and a total of 147 abandoned cars have been towed away since the start of the year by their own owners,” Haddadin told The Jordan Times. 

He noted that GAM resumed removing abandoned vehicles from the capital’s streets after completing a tender project, noting that the completion of the tender signaled that start of this year’s removal of old cars left on the sides of streets.

 “Since the start of this month, GAM teams have already removed 40 abandoned cars,” Haddadin noted.

 What started as a campaign turned into a permanent effort that seeks to rid the streets of the capital of causes of visual and environmental pollution by towing away all cars left on the sides of the streets to a guarded location east of the capital. 

The municipality started the initiative in 2011 due to the excessive number of abandoned cars left for years across the city.

 Since the launch of the campaign, the municipality has towed away over 7,000 cars, with the majority of the cars being removed from industrial areas around the capital, according to GAM.

 The initiative started with the aim of improving the appearance and cleanliness of the capital, but later became a regulated effort after the municipality realised that huge numbers of abandoned cars were parked on the streets, with some of them being used by young people for negative practices, such as drug use. 

In addition, wrecked vehicles also take up part of the road and create traffic jams in some cases, according to GAM, which said that the abandoned cars are either left because they are damaged and rusty or belong to several people as part of an inheritance. 

In the clean-up campaign, implemented in cooperation with the Central Traffic Department, GAM teams locate abandoned vehicles and notify their owners of the need to remove them. They mark vehicles with stickers informing their owners to remove them within a 14-day period before they are towed away.

 If the owners do not comply, the abandoned vehicles are towed to a six-dunum impound lot near the Ring Road. Owners can retrieve their impounded vehicles after paying fees for transport as well as fees for each day their car was impounded, depending on the size of the vehicle, according to the municipality.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Hassan on Thursday attended the inauguration of a workshop titled "A new model for sustainable and integrated local development for host communities and refugee camps: Zaatari camp in Jordan as a case study", the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. During the workshop, organised by the Yarmouk University's Refugee, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration studies Centre, the International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities and the Municipality of Amsterdam, Prince Hassan highlighted the importance of building social peace and cooperation and enhancing regional partnerships in economy, energy, water and food. 

AMMAN — British Ambassador to Jordan Edward Oakden on Thursday officially opened the Turrah gym established at the end of last year in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, an embassy statement said.

The gym, which is a result of an assessment study of local needs carried out by community leaders living in Turrah, aims to enhance the physical and physiological abilities of women, create a safe environment for them to practice sports, establish effective relations among Jordanian and Syrian users, and provide their children with a creative play area while sporting.

The tour also included a visit to Sahel Houran Health Centre to check the extension building completed under the Leadership and Community Development Programme to increase the quality and scope of services to Jordanians and Syrian refugees living in Sahel Houran. 

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday discussed with President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen means to enhance bilateral cooperation and the latest regional and international developments.

Following a one-on-one meeting, His Majesty and the president held expanded talks that were attended by Her Majesty Queen Rania, the president’s wife Doris Schmidauer and senior officials.

The talks, held at Al Husseiniya Palace, covered opportunities to increase trade exchange and enhance economic cooperation, especially in the field of technical education, agriculture and tourism, a Royal Court statement said.

King Abdullah and  President Van der Bellen stressed the importance of building public-private sector partnerships in both countries and benefitting from the Austrian expertise in the fields of vocational training, business incubators and entrepreneurship, in addition to opening new markets for Jordanian products.

The talks also covered coordination between the two countries over issues of mutual interest to contribute to realising peace and enhancing security in the region and the world.

In his remarks, His Majesty welcomed the president, his wife and the accompanying delegation, saying: “On behalf of myself and Rania and the entire Jordanian government and people, we welcome you to Jordan, and we are delighted to have you here on your first visit.”

“Our bilateral ties go back almost 60-odd years,” His Majesty said, noting that the two countries see eye-to-eye on issues of mutual concern.

The King commended Jordanian-Austrian political, military and security ties.

“We have good economic ties, but we could always, as most countries could say, try to improve that,” His Majesty noted, citing the Austrian president’s meeting in Amman with Jordanian and Austrian businesspeople as a good example of ways to strengthen economic cooperation.

“I wanted to thank you very much for your country’s support of our refugee challenges and looking after Jordan, speaking up for us whenever there is a chance in the international community,” the King said.

For his part, President Van der Bellen thanked His Majesty for the warm hospitality during his first visit to the region after assuming his office.

“We realise, of course, what challenges that Jordan had to deal with… in particular, in the last seven years. And your geographical position is, to say the least, not particularly easy, also concerning the most recent developments, around… your country, so we are full of admiration for what you handled all over those years,” the president said.

Also during the talks, which continued over a working lunch, His Majesty stressed the need to intensify efforts to relaunch the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations on the basis of the two-state solution, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

His Majesty noted the importance of the Austrian role in realising peace in the Middle East, given that Austria is scheduled to take over the presidency of the EU Council during the second half of this year.

In regard to Jerusalem, the King underscored the significance of the holy city for Muslims and Christians, describing it as “the key to achieve peace and stability in the region”.

The talks also covered the role of UNRWA and the need to support the organisation in providing its educational, health and relief services to the Palestinian refugees. 

As for the Syrian crisis, King Abdullah stressed Jordan’s support for efforts and initiatives that aim to find a political solution in line with the path of Geneva talks and undertandings.

The two leaders exchanged views over several other issues including the war on terrorism within a holistic approach.

Earlier during the day, President Van der Bellen attended the Jordanian-Austrian business forum with the participation of companies and businesspeople from both countries (see story on page 4).

During the forum, the president called on Austrian companies to benefit from the available investment and trade opportunities in the Kingdom.

Later Wednesday, the president and his wife paid a visit to the ancient city of Petra, 220km south of Amman.

During the visit, they toured the red-rose city, viewing its main monuments including the Treasury, the Siq (the natural gorge that leads down to the city) and the byzantine church.

Upon arrival, he was received by the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority  Chief Commissioner Falah Omoush and Deputy Chief Commissioner and Commissioner of Tourism Affairs Suleiman Farajat.    

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) in 2017 achieved a surplus in subscription insurance that amounted to JD611 million, while insurance expenditure stood at JD965 million, SSC spokesperson Musa Sbeihi said on Wednesday. 

During a visit to SSC Salt branch, Sbeihi said the corporation expects the subscription insurance to achieve a surplus of JD645 million in 2018, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

He added that the value of the SSC’s investment portfolio stood by the end of 2017 at JD9.239 billion, compared with JD8.325 billion by the end of 2016, marking an 11 per cent increase of JD914 million. 

SSC investments in 2017 generated an income of JD360 million, up by JD44 million when compared with the 2016’s figure of JD315 million, marking a 14 per cent hike, Sbeihi added.

The spokesperson cited an SSC study indicating that retirement incomes contribute to limiting poverty in society by 7.7 per cent, noting that SSC pensioners total 213,000 people whose salary bills stood in March at JD82 million. 

AMMAN — A day after the World Bank forecast that Jordan’s economy is expected to increase by 2.4 per cent in 2018, economists on Wednesday said that such a “low” prediction is “realistic” as there will be no breakthroughs ushering in better economic performance this year.

The World Bank report, e-mailed to The Jordan Times, indicated that Jordan’s gross domestic product is expected to increase by 2.5 per cent in 2019 from 2.1 per cent in 2017

The report said that improvements seen in tourism, mining and quarrying are expected to have driven a timid improvement in growth in 2017. 

However, the economy remains burdened with ongoing uncertainty in Syria, slow revival of economic cooperation with Iraq and an economic slowdown in the Gulf Cooperation Council. In addition, the economy is subject to a slow pace of structural reforms that is impeding a strong recovery in growth, the report indicated.

“Over the past 10 years, economic growth was between 2-3 per cent, and this year nothing major is expected to boost the economy,” economist Mazen Marji told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

“The closure of the borders with Syria remains a major issue and the reopening of the borders with Iraq has not been fully utilised as there are still some challenges,” Marji said.

Even if the borders with Syria are reopened, there will be no immediate major positive impact on the economy.

“There are other players and countries in the markets whose products will be competing with ours,” said Marji.

“In Iraq, our trucks are still not allowed to enter the market and there is fierce competition, too,” he said.

Economist Wajdi Makhamreh agreed.

“If the Syrian market is not reopened to our products and there is no substantial and concrete increase in foreign direct investments in the Kingdom, we cannot expect economic growth to  exceed 2.4 per cent, aware that our market is small and vulnerable to external factors,” Makhamreh said.

The World Bank report indicated that poverty is likely to have risen in Jordan given the upward trend of inflation and unemployment and sluggish growth.

Economists agreed, saying there are many factors to why poverty rose in Jordan over the past years.

“There has been no significant increase in salaries over the past years either in the public or the private sectors…the cost of living has been on the rise after taxes and customs fees went up,” Marji said.

“The fuel prices, which affect all other products, have been rising after the government ended its subsidy, and the purchase power of Jordanians has consequently declined,” he explained.

He added that unemployment rates in Jordan have also increased. The unemployment rate remained elevated at 18.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to official figures.

“Higher rates of unemployment mean that are fewer Jordanians working and thus more are becoming poorer,” he said.

Makhamreh noted that the public sector remains the largest employer.

“A large percentage of salaries of workers in the public sector are in the range of JD450 to JD550, and this is not enough amid rising costs of living, rent, transportation and other commodities,” the pundit said.

Official figures estimate that 14.4 per cent of the population lived in poverty during 2010. 

The national annual poverty line for 2010 was set at JD813.7 per individual per year. 

The World Bank report indicated that Jordan has not released poverty estimates since 2010 due to issues with data quality for the 2013-14 Household Expenditure and Income Survey (HEIS). 

The 2017-18 HEIS, which will be representative of Jordanian, non-Jordanian and Syrian nationals was initiated in August 2017.