Business

AMMAN – Under Royal patronage, Arab and international bankers and financiers will gather in Jordan on March 30-31 to attend SWIFT's annual Middle East Regional Conference.

The two-day conference on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea will bring together policy makers, industry leaders and key speakers to discuss the opportunities presented by the region's growth and expansion and examine the challenges posed by an increasingly complex geopolitical and economic environment, the organising company said in a statement posted on its website.

The event, according to organisers, will be a mix of keynote speeches and interactive panel sessions featuring senior speakers and strategic thinkers from across the industry and the region. 

The event will explore the role of financial infrastructure in underpinning economic vitality and in facilitating regional and global trade. Other sessions will look at the rising threat of cybercrime and what institutions in the region are doing to improve financial inclusion. 

AMMAN – The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ)  announced Monday the launch of the eFAWATEERcom portal (www.eFAWATEERcom.jo) that will enable clients inquire about, review and settle their bills online.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, the portal was established in partnership with Madfoo3atCom for Electronic Payments Company as the main operator, MasterCard Internet Gateway Service (MiGS), and Emerging Markets Payments Group (EMP Group) as the hosting company.

This announcement was made during a press conference held at the CBJ's headquarters Monday. Services offered by eFAWATEERcom portal include water, electricity, telecom, education and healthcare bills, in addition to government fines and taxes.

The portal also allows users to safely recharge their prepaid mobile phone balances online using all kind of payment cards that are accepted by MiGS from all around the globe via a unified system, said the statement. 

Barcelona – Defying scepticism and geek-stigma, mobile phone firms are determined this year to sell you a wristwatch wirelessly connected to your mobile phone.

Numerous models have hit the market over the past year but 2015 will see an explosion, analysts say, with manufacturers making their watches and other wearable connected devices more elegant and useful.

US giant Apple's release of its first "smartwatch" — expected by April — is set to make 2015 a "tipping point for wearables", research group CCS Insight said in a report.

In anticipation of that launch, Apple's Asian rivals scrambled to unveil their own connected wrist gadgets in Barcelona on Sunday on the eve of the World Mobile Congress trade show in Barcelona.

South Korean manufacturer LG released the Urbane LTE, its first fully connected luxury wristwatch which can make and receive calls — either with a wireless headset, or by speaking into your wrist like the comic book detective Dick Tracy.

Unlike most smartwatch models, the chunky Urbane LTE version has its own network SIM card with a mobile connection and so can be used for calls, without needing to be linked to a smartphone.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei also unveiled a deluxe smartwatch: a round stainless steel creation that it says can receive text messages, e-mail and call notifications as well monitoring your heart rate and calories burned.

The industry is watching keenly to see whether smartwatches will be the first mobile phone-linked "wearables" to really take off in the mass market — a tough call, according to analysts.

"In the end-user research that we've done, we asked people what a smartwatch is for and they had no idea," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

Technology and fashion 

With the big phone companies piling in alongside smaller smartwatch specialists such as Pebble, fashion brands are doing their bit to try and design a more desirable product.

Several Swiss watchmakers and fashion brands such as Guess have unveiled designs, while jeweller Swarovski has encrusted smartwatches with its crystals for a deluxe look.

"The vast majority of smartwatches on the market are bulky and look more like a piece of technology than a fashion item," however, said Kevin Curran, a telecom specialist at the University of Ulster.

"That's going to change as companies focus more on design and making devices that are more discreet."

With their new circular watches, LG and Huawei positioned themselves at the luxury end of the market, differentiating themselves from the square-faced design revealed in previews by Apple.

"We set out to create smartwatches that could contend for a spot on your wrist with a luxury mechanical watch," said LG's head for Britain and Ireland, Andrew Coughlin.

The launches in Barcelona risk being overshadowed by Apple's release, however.

The Californian company is reportedly planning to ship 5 million of its Apple Watch in the first batch.

"Everyone is watching to see what happens with that. Apple is the massive elephant in the room. We are estimating they could sell 20 million watches this year," said Wood.

That would dwarf the hundreds of thousands of other types of smartwatches that experts estimate have been sold so far.

MUMBAI – Gold premiums in top consumer India could jump to as much as $5 an ounce over world prices next week, from being almost at par, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley surprised jewellers by maintaining import duty at a record level in Saturday's budget.

The wedding season that extends to May typically raises gold demand, but many had delayed purchases expecting a cut in the 10 per cent tax. Buying had been muted in the past few weeks in the otherwise buzzing jewellery centres, Zaveri Baazar in Mumbai and Karol Bagh in New Delhi.

"Gold prices were declining on expectations of a duty cut but now prices would rise and premiums would shoot to $3 to $4 an ounce," said Rahul Gupta, director at P.P. Jewellers in New Delhi.

Keyur Shah, head of precious metals at retailer Muthoot Pappachan, reckons jewellers and manufacturers will replenish their inventory from Monday, boosting premiums to $5 an ounce.

"Inventories with jewellers and manufacturers are low as everyone was waiting for the duty cut to place fresh orders," Shah said. "Next week we would see big purchases from them."

Jaitley instead proposed introducing gold deposit accounts to make use of the more than 20,000 tonnes held in households and temples in the country, and launched a state gold bond to temper imports.

Shares of major jewellers such as Gitanjali Gems  and Titan Company fell after Jaitley's speech, though the higher prices looked unlikely to significantly dent demand.

Instead, clarity around the duty will cause reluctant buyers to finally end their indecision, industry players said.

India could buy more than 90 tonnes in March compared with an estimate of more than 50 tonnes for this month, according to Sudheesh Nambiath, an analyst at precious metals consultancy GFMS, owned by Thomson Reuters.

Although the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not cut the import duty imposed in 2013, it has been relaxing some other curbs.

MADRID – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Sunday called on his Greek counterpart to get "serious" about his country's debt-wracked economy, after Alexis Tsipras accused other eurozone partners of undermining its negotiations with Brussels.

Rajoy was reacting to comments by Tsipras on Saturday, who said that during talks that landed Greece a four-month extension to its bailout, pressure from certain other European countries "had the character of blackmail" — pointing especially to Spain and Portugal.

"Conservative forces [in Europe] tried to set a trap for us, to drive us into financial asphyxia," the 40-year-old Greek premier had said.

Speaking Sunday to a meeting of his conservative party, Rajoy fired back in the first out-in-the-open clash between Tsipras and another European leader.

"We are not responsible for the frustration created by the radical Greek left, which promised the Greek people things it knew it couldn't hold to," Rajoy said.

He noted that Tsipras' hard-left Syriza party had tried to put the blame for Greece's problems on Spain and neighbouring Portugal.

"Looking for an external enemy is a way we've already seen many times in history...  That doesn't solve problems, it aggravates them," Rajoy said.

"The only solution is to get serious," he advised the new Greek leader.

Both Madrid and Lisbon have filed official protests against Tsipras' comments with Brussels.

According to Tsipras, Greece came up against "an axis of powers led by Spain and Portugal" that tried to scupper the negotiations to "avoid internal political risks".

His remarks were seen as a reference to the rise of anti-austerity parties in Spain and Portugal, which have been buoyed by Syriza's arrival to power.

In Spain — which unlike Portugal did not receive a full bailout, but whose banks got emergency support in 2012 — Podemos, a close Syriza ally, is leading polls ahead of general elections expected later this year.

ATHENS – Greece's prime minister vowed Saturday not to back down in his "battle" with the country's creditors, in line with his election promise to abandon austerity and avoid a third bailout.

"The battle will continue," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the central committee of his hard-left Syriza Party. "Anybody thinking that we are going to go away will be disappointed."

Tsipras said that in the talks that landed Greece a four-month extension to its 240 billion euro [$270 billion] bailout Tuesday, the pressure from other European countries "had the character of blackmail".

"Conservative forces [in Europe] tried to set a trap for us, to drive us into budgetary asphyxia," the 40-year-old said. "We will not retreat from the difficulties or from our own principles."

Syriza swept to power in January on a promise to ease the hardship caused by past government spending cuts imposed in return for the eurozone country's two bailouts in 2010 and 2012.

Tsipras reiterated Friday that once the current bailout expires on June 30 there would be no "third memorandum" as the previous agreements tying aid to spending cuts are known.

"Memorandums are finished," he said.

Is it unclear however whether Tsipras can avoid another rescue package.

His self-declared "government of social salvation" faces a major challenge in keeping both voters and Greece's international creditors happy by providing relief for the poor while also keeping government spending in check.

Thursday saw the first protests in Athens since the bailout extension, with several hundred anti-capitalists and anarchists taking to the streets, some smashing shop windows and setting fire to rubbish bins.

Greece must also repay billions of euros in debt in the coming months.

Tsipras has said he wants to renegotiate the country's 320 billion euro debt pile, despite fierce opposition, particularly in Germany, to any new debt "haircut".

Meanwhile, Greece's nascent recovery from six straight years of recession also looks in trouble, with official data on Friday showing a contraction of 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Initial estimates had forecast a 0.2 per cent drop in gross domestic product. 

After winning four months of breathing space from its creditors, the government now has until the end of April to provide them with more details of its reform programme in order to receive the final bailout tranche.

A list of reforms submitted by Athens this week, which focused on tackling tax evasion and excessive bureaucracy, was described by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as just a "starting point".

Germany's parliament nonetheless overwhelmingly approved the bailout extension Friday, despite a minor rebellion by members of Merkel's party, surveys suggesting German voter unease and the country's Bild daily saying "greedy" Greece should get no more money.

On Saturday, Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's maverick new finance minister, promised "no pity" in tackling tax evasion and said that the government might impose a one-off levy on the rich to help fill government coffers.

"What interests us is those who have money but who have never paid [tax]. They are our target and we will show no pity," Varoufakis told the TV channel Skai.

Varoufakis assured such a levy would "only be for those who can pay".

We are not going to take money off people who are suffering," he said.

Tsipras said Friday the government would table legislation early next week aimed at alleviating poverty and putting the country of 11 million on a more equitable road to recovery.

AMMAN – President of the Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) is preparing studies for investment opportunities in Jordan to be presented to Saudi investors in the coming months, ACC President Issa Murad said on Saturday. 

The studies will be ready to be offered during the meetings of the joint Jordanian-Saudi business council that will be held in coming few months, according to an ACC statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times. 

At a meeting with Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Jordan Sami Al Saleh, the ACC chairman said the private sector in Jordan is keen to boost economic and investment ties between the two countries and to attract more investments from the Gulf kingdom. 

He said the chamber is ready to follow up on difficulties facing investors from Saudi Arabia, adding that ACC is also working on organising a meeting for businesspeople from both countries to discuss obstacles and problems encountering investors in Jordan. 

The Saudi diplomat talked about renovation work of the Saudi-funded Azraq-Omari highway, which links Jordan with Saudi Arabia, adding that 18 per cent of rehabilitation works have been achieved so far. Saleh noted that there are 7,800 Saudi students in Jordan. 

According to ACC, Jordan's exports to Saudi Arabia in the first 11 months of 2014 reached JD645 million, while imports from the oil-rich country were over JD2 billion. 

BEIJING – General Motors (GM) is to stop making cars in Indonesia, a battleground for global automakers in emerging Southeast Asia, closing an assembly plant, axing some 500 jobs and shifting its branding focus to sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

The US auto giant, which was the first to set up a car assembly plant in Southeast Asia's biggest economy eight decades ago, is effectively calling time on its attempt to wrestle market share from dominant Japanese rivals, led by Toyota Motor .

GM Executive Vice President Stefan Jacoby, who oversees markets beyond the Americas, Europe and China, acknowledges GM got it wrong in going head-to-head with the Japanese in a market he dubs their "backyard".

GM tried to take on Japanese rivals by locally producing its Chevrolet Spin, a strategic, small “people mover” van which has proved a winner in Brazil, but it was too costly to make to be profitable in Indonesia as most of the parts had to be imported.

The Spin, which sold from around $12,000 and competed with Toyota's Avanza, failed to take off as GM had hoped, making the production plant at Bekasi, just outside Jakarta, a financial burden. Production last year was less than a quarter of Bekasi's annual capacity of 40,000 vehicles. GM sold just 8,412 Spin cars in Indonesia last year, and exported nearly 3,000.

"We could not ramp up Spin production to boost the volume as we had expected... although the product was really good," Jacoby told Reuters. "The logistics chain of the Spin was too complex; we had low volume so we could not localise the car accordingly, and from the cost point of view we were just not competitive."

GM will stop making the Spin in Indonesia by end-June and shutter the Bekasi factory, which employs around 500 people. The restructuring will leave GM Indonesia as only a sales unit.

The overhaul aims to turn GM Indonesia "not only into profitability, but into a sustainable business model", said Jacoby.

The move — part of a broader repositioning of the Chevrolet brand across Southeast Asia, emphasising its American heritage for SUVs like the Captiva and Trailblazer —comes even as GM drives into Indonesia with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp .

The partners plan to set up a manufacturing facility near Jakarta for their no-frills Wuling brand — but aren't interested in taking over the Bekasi plant, said a person close to the joint venture.

GM's decision to dial back its solo presence in a market of 240 million people, where fewer than four in every 100 own a car, comes as global automakers retool their strategies for the world's big emerging markets, including Russia and India.

Despite its long presence in Indonesia, GM sold fewer than 11,000 vehicles there last year, giving it a market share of below 1 per cent, according to LMC Automotive. By contrast, Toyota and its Daihatsu affiliate shifted more than 578,000 vehicles. Toyota and other Japanese makers together control more than 90 per cent of the market.

GM Indonesia chief Michael Dunne is expected to leave his post within days, and will be replaced on an interim basis by Pranav Bhatt, chief financial officer for GM Indonesia. Dunne and Bhatt were not immediately available to comment.

Athens – Fresh tensions emerged Thursday between Greece and Germany as attention turned to Athens's huge debt pile two days after the stricken eurozone country secured an extension of its bailout. 

Greece, whose economy has shrunk by a quarter in six years, owes 320 billion euros ($365 billion), equal to 175 per cent of its annual economic output.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who swept to power last month on a wave of anger at years of austerity cuts, wants to use a four-month bailout extension secured on Tuesday to renegotiate this debt mountain.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the frank-talking economics professor hired by Tsipras to reach a better deal with Greece's creditors, called Wednesday to "begin immediately" a discussion on this.

But with Greece having already secured a 100-billion-euro write-down of its debt to private creditors and two bailouts of 240 billion euros, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed Thursday his "disbelief" at any such suggestion.

"I can't see anything in what Varoufakis is doing that makes life easier for us," the veteran German minister was quoted as telling a parliamentary group meeting.

"No more billions for the greedy Greeks!" screamed mass daily Bild Thursday under a huge "Nein!" ("No!") headline.

Green shoots  

The extension to Greece's lifeline still needs approval from the German parliament and possibly Greece's, but this should be a formality despite unease among some lawmakers in both countries.

To secure the lifeline, Tsipras's new hard-left government published a six-page list of proposed reforms focused on boosting tax receipts and cutting spending through improved efficiencies.

But Tsipras, 40, had to temper campaign promises to hike the minimum wage, reinstate laid-off civil servants and alleviate poverty by vowing that this would be done only in consultation with Greece's creditors.

Varoufakis, meanwhile, told Bloomberg TV in an interview that 700 million euros was deposited at Greek banks on Tuesday.

That is a fraction of the 20 billion euros withdrawn in panic when elections were called and Greece lurched into a new crisis in December, but Varoufakis said this showed confidence was returning.

"There was a deposit flight back into the Greek banking sector," the fluent English-speaker told Bloomberg. "It's a question of direction. Once you turn the tide, you hope."

Doubts in Deutschland 

But Greece, which has been in almost constant crisis mode since 2010 fighting to stay in the single currency zone, is by no means out of the woods.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that the extension was just a "starting point" and that Berlin was under "no illusions" about the challenges ahead.

Schaeuble went further, saying that there was a "lot of doubt in Germany" about whether Athens will stick to the commitments.

"The question now is whether one can believe the assurances of the Greek government or not," Schaeuble said.

According to a survey published on Wednesday, only 21 per cent of Germans are in favour of extending the bailout.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank, which together with the eurozone states hold most of Greece's debts, have also expressed misgivings.

Over the coming four months Greece needs to firm up its reform plans and show by the end of April that they are bearing fruit before receiving a final bailout disbursement of 7.2 billion euros.

In the meantime Greece has to repay several billion euros' worth of maturing debts, including some two billion euros to the IMF in March and April and 6.7 billion euros in ECB bonds maturing in July and August.

In 2015, Greece has to pay back around 19 billion euros.

"We are going to have problems repaying IMF debts and the ECB in July," Varoufakis told Alpha Radio, denying however that this would give the government liquidity problems.

In the Bloomberg interview, Varoufakis suggested that the ECB could settle Greece's debts with the IMF using around two billion euros in bond profits that he said was owed to Athens.

"This is money we are owed," he said. "I find it very hard to imagine that Europe and the IMF will allow us to trip over what is a relatively small cash problem."

AMMAN – Amman-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday the signing of an exclusive licence agreement with specialty pharmaceutical company Azanta A/S for its proprietary cancer product Nimoral (nimorazole). According to a company statement, Nimoral is a hypoxic radiosensitiser to enhance the effect of radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients. The product is currently in Phase 3 clinical development and is being made available under named patient programmes throughout the world. Under the terms of the agreement, Hikma will have the exclusive rights to register, manufacture, distribute and market Nimoral in 20 markets in the MENA region including Turkey, leveraging Hikma’s strong local presence and regulatory expertise, with over 1,800 sales and marketing reps across the region.