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AMMAN — The Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) will sign an agreement with the Russian Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) in mid-February to develop Jordan’s first nuclear plant, its chairman said on Saturday.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, JAEC Chairman Khaled Toukan said the agreement will not be on building the nuclear plant, but will have to do with the developmental matters concerning the projected facility.

In parallel with these preparations, the commission will move ahead in its negotiations to sign agreements between the Jordanian and Russian governments to set the bases for the project.

Toukan said 51 per cent of the nuclear research reactor at the Jordan University of Science and Technology near Irbid has been completed.

In October last year, JAEC announced plans to construct twin 1,000-megawatt reactors in the Qusayr Amra region east of Amman.

It listed the site’s distance from major urban centres and proximity to the Khirbet Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant among its advantages.

The commission selected Russian state-owned firm Rosatom as the preferred vendor to construct the reactors by 2021.

Activists and local residents claim that the reactors threaten the underground aquifers in Azraq, some 15 kilometres from the proposed site.

The Russian company has agreed to take on 49 per cent of the plants’ $10 billion construction and operation costs on a build-own-operate basis, with the government shouldering the remaining 51 per cent and retaining a majority share in the plants.

In remarks to chief editors of major local dailies last week, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said the nuclear option has to be studied well and should not be ruled out without proper reasoning.

Nuclear energy can provide Jordan with almost one-third of its future needs of electric power and can cut costs by around one-third, the prime minister said.

People have to understand all issues related to the nuclear energy option, including costs and safety measures, he explained.

At a meeting with opponents of the nuclear project earlier this month, Ensour said the government will not take a decision on proceeding with the national nuclear programme until after some 20 months.

He said the government is open to all opinions regarding the plan.

“We are now in the stage of preparing the decision, which means holding deliberations and conducting technical and economic studies. We will not enforce a decision on Jordanians unless they are in favour of it,” he noted.

The premier urged economic experts to judge the project on the basis of its feasibility and its expected contribution to the economy, stressing that the government realises that those opposing the scheme have safety concerns or doubt its economic viability.

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Saturday stressed that precautions taken during the Tawjihi winter session have “restored the prestige of the national exam”.

In a letter sent to the ministers of education and interior on Saturday, the premier noted that the measures succeeded in improving confidence in the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) as a criterion for equality and justice among students that reflects their true abilities without interference.

“These measures have put an end to violations and breaches witnessed in previous years, which had harmed the reputation of the exam and raised doubts on its credibility and integrity,” Ensour said.

The cooperation between public, private and security institutions was manifest in the winter session, he added.

The premier also thanked all stakeholders, students and parents for placing public interest above everything, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Students’ Tawjihi grades decide their future in higher education. It is the main criterion to determine which specialty they can major in, which public university they can enrol at and whether they are qualified to go to university.

Around 170,969 students registered for the winter session, including 89,286 boys and 81,683 girls, of whom 106,684 are regular students, according to the Education Ministry.

In previous remarks, Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said the integrity rate in the Tawjihi winter session, which concluded last Tuesday, stood between 85 and 90 per cent and that the exams were held with a “very high” level of discipline.

He added that around 24,000 registered students did not sit for the winter session exam, during which some 6,000 violations were recorded.

In order to avoid a repeat of the “flagrant” violations witnessed in previous sessions, the ministry took strict measures this year, such as appointing 24,000 monitors and installing special devices to jam mobile reception, thus foiling attempts to cheat through cellular phones.

These procedures cost the government around JD26 million.

ABU DHABI –– Renewable energy is the most viable approach for the future of Jordan and regional countries, according to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Director General Adnan Amin.

“Jordan is a very interesting market because it has a very developed institutional structure in terms of government agencies dealing with energy issues,” Amin said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

“Jordan is looking very positively at the future of renewable energy,” he added.

The potential for the Kingdom to start investing in major power generation projects and renewable energy is there, Amin said, noting that its renewable energy market can be bigger with regional integration.

He said IRENA will be engaging with Jordan in the near future to help it achieve its ambitions in renewables.

Under the Kingdom’s 2007-2020 energy strategy, the government had established a renewable energy target equivalent to 7 per cent of the energy mix by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2020.

The plan calls for up to 1,000-megawatt (MW) of wind, 600MW of solar and 50MW of waste-to-energy to be brought online by 2020.

“Renewable energy is the cheapest option to provide electricity access to people,” Amin said, adding that for an oil importing country like Jordan, which is vulnerable to the price of oil, renewable energy resources that are indigenous and inexhaustible can power the country’s future.

Jordan has one of the highest annual daily averages of solar irradiance in the world, with 330 days of sunshine per year, official estimates indicate.

In addition, the Kingdom has significant amounts of untapped wind energy, with wind speeds as high as 7.5 metres per second and up to 11.5 metres per second in hilly areas, according to energy experts.

Region’s future

Asked if IRENA has any estimates for the value of projects and jobs from green energy to be created in the Middle East, Amin said a study the agency conducted on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries shows that if GCC members meet their targets by 2020, around 116,000 jobs will be created every year.

“The GCC countries have already started targets, and they are not huge targets, ranging between 7 per cent and 10 per cent,” he noted.

“We see similar trends in the MENA region in which Jordan is located,” Amin added.

Green energy will be the main driver of the economy in the future as it would create new industrial structure, new areas of growth and new jobs, the IRENA chief said.

“If Jordan starts an investment programme in renewable energy with a local value chain, and manufacturing industries are associated with the investment, you can be generating new areas of growth,” Amin added.

Nuclear versus renewable

Asked about the comparison between nuclear and renewable energy, Amin said every country has to decide its own energy policy, but IRENA’s job is to tell each nation about the opportunities of renewable energy as it can be a growth industry that creates economic value and jobs.

The cost issues of renewable energy are developing in such a way that are much cheaper than nuclear energy and safer, he said, indicating that there are many expenses associated with nuclear energy that are not applicable when utilising renewable resources, such as risks, insurance and development costs.

“Our belief is that renewable energy is the most viable approach for the future and much more environmentally safe,” Amin stressed.

AMMAN — Around 100 Jordanian activists gathered outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman on Saturday to celebrate the third anniversary of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and protest against the ouster of ‎Egypt’s former president ‎Mohamed ‎Morsi.

Security personnel who were present at the demonstration, organised by the Jordanian Commission to Support Freedom and Legitimacy in Egypt, outnumbered the protesters.

A number of employees at the Egyptian embassy were seen taking photos of the demonstrators.

Participants waved the Egyptian and Jordanian flags and held banners expressing solidarity with protesters at Rabaa Al Adawiya Square in northeast Cairo, where security forces killed hundreds of people on August 14 while breaking up a sit-in by Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

The protesters had set up camp there in solidarity with ousted Islamist president Morsi, who was elected after the January 25 revolution.

The Jordanian activists took turns speaking about the anniversary and condemning Morsi's ouster.

They also performed the Maghrib prayer outside the embassy.

Abdul Hadi Falahat, the president of Jordanian Commission to Support Freedom and Legitimacy in Egypt, said Jordanians support Egyptians in their quest to regain democracy and freedom.

"The military coup that took place in Egypt will contribute to destroying Arabs' determination towards democracy," he told The Jordan Times during the demonstration.

Ahmad Saafeen, one of the demonstrators, said January 25 is significant, marking the day when people took a stand against oppression and injustice.

He also noted that Egypt experienced great days full of justice and hard work under Morsi's rule.

Muhannad Shatnawi said people became aware of their rights and how to choose the best leaders on January 25, while Mohammad Ali noted that Egyptians did not regain full freedom with the removal of Hosni Mubarak after some 30 years in power.

"The intention of keeping military rule in Egypt was there in the first place. Only one person was removed, not a whole system," Ali said.

He charged that there is a conspiracy against Egypt because it is one of the leading countries in the Arab world.

"If the Egyptian revolution had been successful, it would have inspired all Arab nations to demonstrate against their oppressive regimes," he claimed. 

AMMAN — India is keen on strengthening its cooperation with Jordan in economic, industrial and trade spheres as well as in the areas of defence, consultation and expertise exchange, India’s Ambassador to Jordan Radha Ranjan Dash said.

In an interview with The Jordan Times on Friday on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of his country's republic day, the ambassador highlighted current cooperation and prospects for further joint projects.

"There is a lot of scope,” he said, describing Jordan as a model in the Middle East. “It remains an oasis of peace and stability," Dash noted, underlining the importance that India attaches to ties with the Kingdom.

India’s republic day commemorates the day when the constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. The day officially marks the birth of an independent India and the swearing-in of its first president, Rajendra Prasad, after 100 years of British rule.

An annual parade will take place near India Gate in the capital, New Delhi, featuring members of the navy, air force and army to mark the occasion.

The country's 28 states bring their cultural troupes who perform throughout the parade for visitors from different parts of India and abroad, the ambassador said.

Well ahead of the republic day, festivities were under way in several parts of India, with participants hoisting the Indian tricolour and chanting the words "Vande Matharam,” which means "Salute our Mother Land."

Today, with a population of more than 1.21 billion, India has become the world's third largest economy in purchasing power parity terms.

Its relations with Jordan are steadily progressing in various fields, according to Dash.

“We are very hopeful that there will be more business between the two countries,” the ambassador said, noting that the “fairly balanced” bilateral trade volume totalled $1.23 billion between January and October 2013.

"We are importing phosphate, potash and phosphoric acid to make fertilisers. India is a big market. We need fertilisers for our agriculture," he said, underscoring the huge opportunities that Jordan can tap.

Jordan's imports from India include frozen meat, basmati rice, machinery, pharmaceuticals and spare parts, the envoy indicated.

As part of ongoing cooperation, an $850 million joint venture between the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) and the Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative will become operational in March 2014, he noted.

Moreover, the JPMC, Gujarat Narmada Fertiliser Company and United Phosphorous Limited signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding in March 2013 to set up a new phosphoric acid plant in Jordan, according to the ambassador.

“I am confident this project will be implemented,” Dash said.

An Indian business delegation is due to visit Jordan to explore prospects for more cooperation and "we are trying to schedule the meeting in 2014," he elaborated.

Now, "we are waiting for two delegations to visit India," he noted. The first comprises pharmaceutical representatives, and the second small- and medium-sized enterprises, Dash added, underscoring the potential for expertise exchange and setting up joint ventures.

With India's vast experience in IT, Jordan has embarked on cooperation in this domain.

In February 2013, India's Amity University Online and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University signed an agreement paving the way for access to online higher education in a range of streams, the ambassador said.

Dash also highlighted tourism cooperation and ongoing consultations between the foreign ministries of Jordan and India.

There are direct flights between the two countries and Jordan is just five-and-a-half hours away, he said, adding that “people to people contact is very important.”

Around 80,000 Indians visited Jordan in 2013; they come to see Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba and the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, Dash said.

Moreover, Bollywood has also been showing an interest in exploring Jordan as a location for shooting films, according to the ambassador.

A song in "Krrish 3", a 2013 science fiction film, was shot in Jordan and “shows Petra’s Treasury”, the ambassador noted.

At present, the Indian community in Jordan is estimated at around 10,000, most of them employed in the garment and health sectors.

Some 25 garment factories in Qualifying Industrial Zones are owned by Indians with an investment of over $60 million, providing jobs to more than 9,000 employees.

New Delhi and Amman signed the first cooperation agreement in 1947, when India gained its independence, and diplomatic ties were formalised in 1950, according to the Indian embassy.