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AMMAN — Over 100 Jordanian and Romanian companies on Monday gathered in Amman to discuss ways to enhance bilateral economic ties and strengthen the exchange of expertise between the two countries' business communities. 

Held under the patronage of Princess Margareta, custodian of the Romanian Crown and Prince Radu, the Romania - Jordan Business Forum witnessed the participation of a number of officials and businesspeople from Jordan and Romania, who took part in various discussions related to the sectors of trade and industry.

In his opening address, Romanian ambassador Nicolae Comanescu stressed his pride in taking part in the organisation of the first Romanian–Jordanian Business Forum in Amman, noting that the project has been encouraged by His Majesty King Abdullah during his previous meetings with the royal family of Romania. 

"I look forward to continue supporting the business-to-business discussions and meetings between the companies from Romania and Jordan. This business forum is a first step that will contribute to generate an added value to our positive diplomatic relations with the Kingdom," he told The Jordan Times. 

He called for diversifying bilateral trade, citing the ITC sector as a key sector with "very good prospects".

For her part, the Romania princess commended the “solid partnership" with the Kingdom, especially in the fields of agriculture, health, security and technology, noting that bilateral trade exchange is "on the rise”.

A working session held under the title "Trade and Industry" was conducted by First Vice-chairman of Jordan Chamber of Industry Mohammad Al-Refai, First Vice-chairman of Jordan Chamber of Commerce Ghassan Kherfan, King Hussein Business Park (KHBP) CEO Soud Soror, Managing Director of Endeavour Jordan Reem Goussous and Romania's Tetracom Industrial Park Director Viorem Gavera.

After briefing the audience about KHBP's success story and future expansion plan, Soror stressed the importance of the forum in building on the mutual support between the two countries.

"This forum aims at bridging all obstacles to exchange expertise and encourage the businesses towards positive development in Romania and Jordan," he said.

Viorem Gavera from Tetracom Industrial Park in Romania, praised the efforts and vision behind the King Hussein Business Park, calling for further exploring opportunities of future collaboration between the two institutions. 

Presenting Tetracom's future expansion project to the audience, he stressed the Romanian park's keenness to develop the exchange of knowledge with KHBP and to benefit from the Jordanian's expertise in the field.

For her part, Managing Director of Endeavor Jordan Reem Goussous spoke about the positive influence of Jordan's entrepreneurship ecosystem, commending the opportunities provided by the business for local and Romanian startups.

Established in 1965, diplomatic relations between Romania and Jordan have been witnessing an increase in recent years, with Jordan standing as one of Romania’s main trading partners in the region, according to the Romanian embassy website. 

Romanian exports to Jordan include electromechanical equipment, power distribution equipment, steel products, sawn wood, grains, food and textile products, chemical products, among others while Jordanian exports to Romania encompass fruits and vegetables, medicines and chemical products.

Apart from trade, the two countries have witnessed a long term and mutual beneficial economic cooperation, with Romanian companies participating in various development projects in Jordan's energy and oil sectors, according to the website. 

AMMAN — The Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies on Sunday launched “Mehnaty” ("My Profession" in Arabic), a website aimed at raising awareness on the importance of harmony between educational paths followed by students across the Kingdom and opportunities available at the local labour market. 

The issue was addressed earlier this year by the Higher Education Council (HEC) through the admission policies set for the next academic year which “take into account the current absorptive capacity of the labour market per each specialty based on the decision ratified by HEC to reduce the percentage of students in specialties with no labour demand”, Higher Education Minister Adel Tweisi said. 

“Up to this point, we have been able to reduce the number of students in the targeted specialties by 30 per cent,” the minister added, explaining that “the objective is now to increase the number of students enrolled in technical specialties, as the labour demand is witnessing a continued increase in this field”.

The new website, available at Mehnaty.org, provides students with the necessary data to make informed decisions about their career prospects including labour policies, decision makers' guides for the development of new strategies aimed at increasing employability, and a database on job postings for the sectors of health, management, finance and engineering. 

The site also provides information on the personal knowledge and skills to be provided by professionals depending on their career paths, as well as information on salary estimates and future trends in employment demand. 

“This website will help alleviate youth unemployment in Jordan, which remains one of the most pressing and persistent obstacles in our country,” the organisation said in a statement, adding that “this site will guide educational institutions, decision makers and other stakeholders as much as it guides school and university students, helping them on adapting their curricula and educational paths to meet the needs of the labour market”.

The centre expressed hopes for the website to “benefit students in the final stages of their education by helping them to identify careers compatible both with their aspirations and the capacities of the Jordanian labour market, while guiding institutions and vocational training centres in transferring the basic knowledge and skills necessary for students to take part in the labour market”.

Tawjihi (General Secondary Education Certificate Examination) student Mohammad Al Khalil welcomed the launch, noting that “the time to make a final choice on the degree and university I want to get into is getting closer day by day and I am still confused about the choices, but the information available in this site will help me make a wise decision that is good for my future”.

“Like me, most of my classmates are still unsure about what to choose,” the student continued, adding that “whatever we end up deciding, I think it is essential to have a way to ensure that good opportunities will be waiting for us out there”.

However, University of Jordan student Reem Abazza expressed reservations about the website, saying “although this site is addressing the reality Jordan is facing at the moment, the truth is that there should not be any degrees without further professional opportunities for their graduates.”

“The fact that we need such a tool in Jordan should be a warning for the concerned institutions to start working on the root of this problem, whether it lies in the education system or an exhausted economy,” the student concluded.

AMMAN — Upon the request of around 80 MPs, the Lower House is scheduled to hold a general session on Tuesday to discuss the work mechanism of the Social Security Corporation’s (SSC) investment fund.

Lawmakers will also discuss an amended version of the 2014 SSC Law proposed by MP Abdul Karim Doughmi.

Doughmi, a lawyer and former justice minister, has recently said that the proposed amendment to the law seeks to protect the assets of the SSC, adding that the amendments he suggested to the law would oblige the SSC Investment Fund (SSIF) to obtain the approval of the corporation’s board of directors for any investment it endorses.

During a session last week, several MPs cited what they described as the “loose” management of the SSC’s assets by its investment fund, formerly the investment unit. 

MP Khalil Atiyyeh warned against “touching the SSC’s money”, saying that the “corporation is as ‘sacred’ and ‘untouchable’ as the army”,  while his colleague Fawaz Zoubi charged that he had submitted a memo to the House stating SSIF’s losses. 

The government on March 3 sent a question to the Judicial Council’s Law Interpretation Bureau, requesting an explanation of Article 8 and 14 of the SSC Law governing the work of the SSIF and its duties.  

According to Paragraph C of Article 8 of the law, a fund is established for the purpose of investing the corporation’s assets that enjoys administrative and financial independence. “The management and work mechanism of the said fund, as well as allocated funds, and methods of managing and investing shall be stipulated in special law issued for this purpose.” 

Paragraph B of Article 14 lists ten functions for the SSIF, including developing general investment policy and plan, making necessary investment decisions and submitting periodic reports to the SSC board on its activities and performance. 

On March 21, the bureau convened and ruled that the SSIF, while carrying out its investment activities, is “supposed” to rely on the SSC’s general plan endorsed by the board and, while working according to the general guidelines that the board approves, it then can enjoy “full jurisdiction” over the management and investment of its allocations without obtaining the approval of any other sides within the corporation’s organisational structure.

In its verdict, a copy of which was made available to The Jordan Times, the bureau said that the SSC board shall have the right to monitor the SSIF in case the latter’s investment decisions deviate from the corporation’s general investment policies.   

Labour Minister Samir Murad, who is also the chairman of the SSC’s board of directors, has been reiterating recently that there is no change to the decision-making mechanism related to SSIF, whose total assets reached around JD9.274 billion at the end of last year, compared with around JD8.3 billion in 2016, with an increase of JD984.1 million, representing 11.4 per cent, according to the SSIF’s annual report.

AMMAN — INSAN Coalition for UPR on Monday launched its 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in Jordan.

During a press conference on Monday, Jordanian Women's Union President Amna Zu’bi said, “It is both a right and a duty of the civil society organisations to prepare reports and issue recommendations on the status of human rights in the Kingdom so as to have them considered in the government’s relevant report.”

The twofold report, which was conducted by INSAN Collation for UPR, addresses the civil and political rights as well as the social, economic and intellectual rights, and presents a number of recommendations to enhance the status of these rights in the Kingdom.

Hala Ahed, INSAN coalition's coordinator, said that the report, which was submitted to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights late in March, “is not a ‘shadow report’ that follows the national one, but a stakeholder summary that is submitted to the government prior to issuing their report in order to take the civil society’s views into consideration”.

“The report was prepared after intensive consultations and regular meetings among the coalition members, with human right experts and other civil society organisations,” noted Mohammad Shamma, a coalition member.

One of the recommendations is to amend the Constitution which currently does not recognise gender as a prohibited aspect of discrimination and does not include an anti-discrimination code or legislations criminalising discrimination.

The report also addressed the laws that “discriminate against women and are not compatible with international conventions and standards”. 

Ahed stressed that the coalition’s role is not limited to observing and issuing recommendations, but also to try to “to exercise effective pressure on the government”.

Muath Momani, representative of Lawyers Without Borders, said that the government is taking the coalition’s recommendations “seriously” and is responding with the coalition to conduct discussions. 

For Ahmad Meri, representative of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, the effectiveness of the civil society’s reports can be measured by the concrete steps taken by the government to implement the recommendations after Geneva’s review.

Ahed noted that the report also highlighted recent achievements in the field, citing the abolishment of Article 308 and the amendment of Article 98 of the Penal Code.

Abolished in August 2017, Article 308 previously allowed perpetrators of rape and sexual assault to avoid legal punishment by marrying their victims, while Article 98, amended in July 2017, stipulated that the perpetrator of an “honour crime” could benefit from “mitigating circumstances” if the individual claimed to have been suffering from intense rage during the incident. 

“In spite of the achievements, there are still some major issues with no tangible progress made, such as the Jordanian women’s right to pass their citizenship to their children if they are married to foreigners,” Ahed commented, stressing that “all rights are a priority for us and we will continue our efforts towards highlighting problems and suggesting solutions”. 

INSAN Coalition for UPR is composed of a number of Jordanian civil society organisations, human rights experts and media professionals. Its members include Phenix centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, Justice Centre for Legal Aid, Jordanian Women’s Union, Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Lawyers without Borders, Wae’e Centre for Human Rights Studies, Ana Insan Society for Rights of the PwD, and human rights activists and journalists: Rania Sarayrah, Nadine Nimri, Muhammad Shamma, and Najat Shana’a. 

The Coalition was formed in December 2012 to prepare and monitor Jordan’s UPR reports, in addition to monitoring the implementation of human rights principles and standards in the Kingdom, according to an INSAN statement.

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has demanded that owner of a collapsed building in an east Amman suburb renovate an over fifty-year-old property before allowing back its occupants, a municipal official said on Monday.

The public safety higher committee evacuated the three-storey building in Hashemi Shamali on Sunday and declared it unsafe to occupy after part of its ceiling collapsed, leaving two injured, according to Raed Haddadin, head of the municipality’s construction monitoring department.

“The building is very old, dating back to the 1970s, while some parts of it are even older. The property received maintenance over the past years without professional engineering supervision. Part of one of the storey’s ceilings caved in on Sunday because of lack of proper maintenance of the old building,” Haddadin told The Jordan Times.

Three families of some fifteen members occupied the building, Haddadin said, indicating that when the ceiling collapsed, two were slightly injured.

An officer at the Civil Defence Department’s (CDD) media office told The Jordan Times that the CDD did not deal with the incident.

“All of the occupants were told to abandoned the building for safety concerns, while owner of the building was demanded to hire a contractor or an engineering office to renovate the building and the its falling staircase,” Haddadin highlighted.

He added that owner of the building signed a written pledge of not occupying the building unless the requested renovations by GAM are implemented.  

AMMAN — Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of State Musa Maaytah on Monday said the government will continue working on the country’s legislation to safeguard the security and status of women and children.

“The government has introduced many laws that were in favour of women and children over the past years and have increased women’s representation in the political life,” Maaytah said.

The minister’s remarks were made during a roundtable meeting on “Gaining Support for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Global Agenda of 2030, especially Goal 5 on Women’s Empowerment and Equality” organised by the Arab Women Organisation (AWO) in cooperation with the National Centre for Human Rights and the EU Support to Civil Society in Jordan.

Held at the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs with the support of the European Union, the event and attended by representatives from various city council governorates.

Maaytah stressed that his ministry will always be the “umbrella to support the civil society’s demands to apply the SDGs by the government and to be the connection between the government and the local non-government organisations”.

Goal 5 seeks to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life and undertaking reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, according to the SDG website.

It also seeks to end all forms of discrimination against women and girls around the world, to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres and to end all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

Deputy Wafa Bani Mustafa highlighted the Lower House of Parliament’s numerous votes in favour of many laws ensuring equality for women.

“We will continue to lobby our colleagues at the Lower House to vote in favour of women’s empowerment and equality, while at the same time follow up on the government to ensure the proper application and implementation of the goals,” Bani Mustafa stressed. 

AWO Programme Director Laila Naffa said: “Our aim is to win the support of the local community and the government to carry on with the SDGs recommendations from the bottom to the top”.

“We want to convince the government of Jordan that it should be serious in implementing all SDGs, especially Goal 5, 13 and 17,” Naffa told The Jordan Times.

She said the idea is “to build a coalition to ensure that the government is following up on the SDGs’ recommendations”, explaining “our role is to follow up and monitor if the goals are being implemented by the government and to follow up on the process”.

Goal 13 calls for taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, while Goal 17 calls for strengthening the means of implementation and revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development.

Naffa noted that several meetings were held with various government representatives across the country over the past few months to discuss the SDGs, adding that participants agreed that there is an urgent need to raise people’s awareness about the goals through multiple nationwide campaigns.

“The meetings resulted in recommendations such as lobbying the government to tie Goal 5 to the rest of the goals because it ensures gender equality,” Naffa said. 

Other recommendations, according to Naffa, included raising awareness on the importance of protecting the environment and including women in all activities and programmes in this field.

“The recommendations also focused on building coalitions with various entities in the country to ensure that all the goals are applied,” Naffa concluded.

AMMAN — HH Prince Mired Bin Raad, president of the Higher Council for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities, is scheduled on Tuesday to participate in the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services' "5% Within Frequency Range" conference.

The two-day event will address issues related to hearing impairment, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Prince Mired said that the Kingdom's participation is based on its keenness to exchange related expertise and knowledge, and in a way that achieves integration among Arab countries.

The conference will discuss updates on a number of topics, including the Arab community’s uniqueness of culture and sign language, educating persons with hearing impairment, improving education results and healthcare accessibility for those with hearing impairment.

AMMAN — The Public Security Department (PSD) on Monday said that the King Hussein Bridge will be open for passengers on Wednesday between 8:00am and 7:00pm; Arab, tourist, and VIP buses can cross the bridge up to 5pm, with cargo shipment is available until noon. 

On Thursday, 5:30pm is the deadline for Arab, tourist, and VIP buses to cross the bridge, which will be closed all day for cargo, the PSD said in a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

As for working hours at the border crossing on Wednesday, passengers can cross between 7:00am and 6:30pm, while the crossing on Thursday will be open for passengers between 8:30am and 6:30pm.

Cargo movement on Wednesday and Thursday will be closed at the Jordan Valley and Southern Wadi Araba border crossings.

AMMAN – Legal empowerment of the poor is prerequisite to eliminate marginalisation and exclusion, HRH Prince Hassan said at a conference on Monday.

Poverty is not only the lack of material belongings, but the definition rather expands to include all forms of psychological and physical deprivation as well, he emphasised at the gathering, titled, "Socio-economic Implications of Terrorism during Regional Development and International Transformation," organised by the Arab Thought Forum.

“Remember that the absence of legal empowerment deprives some groups off their legitimate right to pitch new ideas.”

He added that terrorism is associated with the problem of “narrow mindedness" in the Arab and Islamic worlds and, consequently, the negative way Arabs and Muslim treat each other. The fight, he said, should be for the sake of Muslims, the poor and world peace, describing poverty as a "trap" into which terrorists lure the poor.

His Highness concluded by suggesting the establishment of a world fund for ‘zakat,’ the Islamic term for alms or charity, "since 80 per cent of the refugees around the world are Muslims, he said,

Prince Hassan, who is the President of the forum, said that Arab pan-nationalism values are challenged by the increasing polarisation and hatred among the members of the same nation.

To address such a problem, it would help to incorporate values like compassion and "shura" (decision-making via a democratic manner) in the educational programmes in Arab countries.

Equally important is the promotion of knowledge, he added, stressing that it is the most effective weapon to face the current challenges and change a reality where Arabs are continuously buying weapons from abroad and not producing anything.

The essence of the envisioned change is there at the core of Islam, the true and pure Islam that needs no adjectives, His Highness stressed, such as tolerant or modern. The Holy Koran presents role models for believers to follow and values that should unite the nation, he said.

Mohammad Abu Hammour, the forum's secretary general, said in his remarks that with the rise of terrorism, the global fight against the phenomenon targets both armed terrorism and the terrorist ideology.

He said cited studies estimating that the Arab world has incurred a loss of $1.7 trillion because of the so-called Arab Spring, which has also been the direct cause of a massive wave of migration and displacement, a decline in investments and human tragedies.

“Poverty and unemployment are the result of economic deprivation and are a fertile soil for terrorism,” said Abu Hammour, adding that creating jobs and engaging youth are the needed solutions to safeguard societies against terrorist recruiters.

The two-day conference was organised in cooperation with London Consulting & Research Centre, and attended by researchers from 70 countries including Yemen, Palestine, UAE, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq.

A university professor specialised in education, Nariman Attieh presented a paper on the importance of spreading awareness against terrorism amongst the youth. She told The Jordan Times that now is the time to step from theory to application by equipping young people with the necessary knowledge and skills to understand the dangers of terrorism and reject it.

President of the Parliamentary Studies Centre Mohammad Masalha said on the sidelines of the event that as long as there is unsound administration of public affairs and corruption in some countries, along with suppression and absence of democracy, terrorism as a phenomenon will live on.

“This conference will analyse the implications of the previous stage and suggest ideas and solutions for decision makers to help face this danger that threatens our future,” the pundit said.   

Also among the attendance was Linda Al Khadra, a student from Yarmouk University, who told The Jordan Times that focus should be on creating programmes and organising workshops to encourage, educate and raise awareness among students against the terrorism threat.   

AMMAN — HRH Princess Ghida Talal, chairperson of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC), on Monday signed an agreement with the EU to fund a project under the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme (JBCP) to support civil society organisations in integrative learning.

EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Fontana signed the agreement on behalf of the EU, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Princess Ghida expressed appreciation for the EU’s support of the project and JBCP, highlighting the importance of initiatives that support early screening and breast cancer diagnoses that can save the lives of thousands of women.