Local

AMMAN — The consumer price index (CPI), a measurement of inflation, rose by 5.6 per cent in 2013 compared with 2012, according to the Department of Statistics (DoS).

The inflation rate by the end of last year almost came in line with the expectations of the International Monetary Fund, which estimated inflation in 2013 to reach 5.5 per cent.

The DoS report said that the rise in inflation was attributed mainly to higher transportation prices, which went up by 11.4 per cent last year, fuel and electricity, which, according to the official figures, showed the highest increase in prices after it rose by 19.7 per cent.

Other commodities and services that pushed inflation up in 2013 included rentals, which rose by 4.5 per cent, vegetables by 14.3 per cent and fruits by 17 per cent, the DoS bulletin showed.

The official reports indicated that the increase in several commodity prices was coupled with a drop in the prices of cigarettes and tobacco products by 8.5 per cent, medical care by 1.5 per cent, cereal products by 1 per cent and cooking oil by 1.4 per cent.

In December, the CPI went up 3.3 per cent when compared with the same month of 2012, according to the data e-mailed to The Jordan Times. 

AMMAN — The University of Jordan (UJ) has launched a new master’s programme in sustainable development, the “first such specialisation ever taught in Jordan”.

The two-year programme, which is supported by the Columbia University Middle East Research Centre (CUMERC) and the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, will incorporate the basic sciences required for sustainable development, including health, nature and social administration.

During the launch, held at CUMERC on Monday, UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh said the university has implemented similar academic programmes in cooperation with European universities in Germany and Sweden.

The new MA programme, to be implemented in cooperation with Columbia University in the US and CUMERC, is part of UJ’s quest for further international recognition, Tarawneh added.

Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif stressed the importance of the new programme in providing decision makers with scientific and specialised research on sustainable development.

CUMERC Director Safwan Masri said the master’s programme is taught at 22 universities worldwide, including the New York-based Columbia University, highlighting the potential contributions of such a branch to Jordan’s development endeavour.

Ziad Edynat, dean of UJ’s school of international studies and political sciences, said the programme is expected to equip a generation of researchers and specialists with the basic skills to address problems related to development in their countries.

The programme, according to pamphlets distributed during the ceremony, seeks to provide students with the skills and knowledge required to design sustainable development projects in sectors they are involved in that enable them to tackle a variety of challenges including poverty, climate change and contagious diseases.

The programme will also feature field training that employs theoretical aspects in projects agreed upon with the Planning Ministry and other institutions involved in sustainable development.

The core courses in the programme include theories of human development, public health, agriculture, water management, environment impact assessment and research methods in development studies.

UJ will begin accepting applications for the programme this month.

AMMAN — Jordanians will be able to inquire about their private sector and government bills and settle them online through the eFAWATEERcom service, to be launched in April by the Central Bank of Jordan.

“Those with bank accounts will be able to see their bills the moment they are issued and can settle them online immediately without the need to visit the branches of electricity or water companies,” Maha Bahou, executive manager of the payment systems department at CBJ, told The Jordan Times.

All banks in Jordan will be connected to the software, which was developed by Jordanian company Madfoo3atCom for Electronic Payments, she said.

“Those wishing to benefit from the service will need to fill a profile at their banks with the number of their electricity and water meters, the buildings they own and other information related to their possessions, and their bills will be sent to them online by the end of each month,” Bahou added.

eFAWATEERcom aims to provide Jordanians with a convenient, time-saving and flexible method to review and settle their bills via ATMs, mobile banking, Internet banking and other electronic payment methods under a unified system, according to a Madfoo3atCom statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The service will allow beneficiaries to cover electricity, phone, water, education, healthcare, travel and tourism, e-Commerce and insurance bills, in addition to government fines, property taxes and other fees, subsequently ensuring “fast, low-cost transactions” for all involved parties.

“Now that CBJ is involved, it will be reassuring for users concerned about the safety and security of transactions they conduct online using this software,” Bahou said, noting that it was “developed in line with highly sophisticated international standards to ensure safety”.

“We expect the programme to boost usage of e-transactions,” she added.

Nasser Saleh, CEO and founder of Madfoo3atCom, stressed that “the service will offer Jordanians optimum flexibility and security while paying their bills via electronic channels such as mobile phones and laptops.”

“It will also enable them to avoid any unnecessary service shut-offs that may occur due to delayed transactions, as well as the immediate activation of an inactive service,” the statement quoted him as saying.

“eFAWATEERcom will also positively impact the national economy as a whole as a result of faster cash-flow, higher effectiveness and time-efficiency,” he added.

AMMAN — An initiative launched on Wednesday seeks to encourage consumers to start using concentrated laundry detergent to reduce water and electricity consumption.

Calling on companies to produce condensed powdered detergent to save the environment, the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products (AISE) announced the launch of the “Concentrate for the Environment” initiative at a press conference in the capital.

AISE Project Manager Pinolo Fontanari said the voluntary industry-led sustainability scheme seeks to reduce the environmental impact of the production and consumption of powdered detergent used in washing machines.

The nationwide initiative is open to all companies that manufacture or supply laundry detergent in the local market, he added.

Participating companies must commit to compacting all heavy-duty powder detergents by a certain percentage, thus decreasing the recommended dosage while maintaining performance quality, according to Fontanari.

For example, a four-kilogramme pack of washing powder must be reduced to three kilogrammes or less of concentrated detergent, while ensuring that the smaller pack washes the same amount of laundry as the regular pack, organisers of the event said.

“There are around five to six companies that produce and sell detergents in Jordan; so far two of them have committed to our initiative,” Fontanari told The Jordan Times.

He noted that concentrated detergents will be available soon, when these two firms start supplying the local market with their new products.

The initiative will run from January through March, according to Dima Jallad, a member of AISE, who said that participating companies will place the “Concentrated Detergent” logo on their products, detailing the correct amounts of condensed laundry powder to use.

Jallad noted that a similar initiative was launched in 2010 in Egypt and the Gulf countries, where it achieved positive environmental savings in product consumption.

The initiative aims at reducing the environmental load related to laundry in terms of chemicals, packaging materials and energy consumption, according to AISE.

Meanwhile, the Jordan Environment Society’s environment awareness and public relations officer, Farah Namrouqa, said the society supports the initiative and calls on local detergent companies to commit to it.

“Jordan suffers from an acute water shortage and currently imports the majority of its energy needs; therefore, cutting down on the consumption of water and electricity is imperative,” Namrouqa said during the press conference.

AMMAN — Jordan topped Middle East countries in the prevalence of smoking among males and third in terms of female smokers, according to a global study.

Research conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington showed that the rate of smoking among Jordanian men was 43.4 per cent in 2012, followed by Palestine (41.3 per cent) and Turkey (39 per cent).

The prevalence of smoking among females in Jordan stood at 8.5 per cent, following Lebanon, which was ranked first with 21.2 per cent, and Turkey (13.6 per cent).

The “Smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption in 187 countries, 1980-2012” study was published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association in a special issue devoted to tobacco, and a copy of the study was made available to The Jordan Times.

The study aimed at estimating the prevalence of daily smoking by age and sex, and the number of cigarettes per smoker per day.

Since 1980, large reductions in the estimated prevalence of daily smoking were observed at the global level for both men and women, the study said.

However, because of population growth, the number of smokers increased significantly.

“As tobacco remains a threat to the health of the world’s population, intensified efforts to control its use are needed,” the study recommended.

“Tobacco is a leading global disease risk factor. Understanding national trends in prevalence and consumption is critical for prioritising action and evaluating tobacco control progress.”

According to the study, global modelled age-standardised prevalence of daily tobacco smoking in the population older than 15 years decreased from 41.2 per cent in 1980 to 31.1 per cent in 2012 for men and from 10.6 per cent to 6.2 per cent for women.

However, despite the decline in modelled prevalence, the number of daily smokers increased from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012.

Local efforts

Despite enacting a law that prohibits smoking in public places four years ago, it is not “fully implemented” a Health Ministry official told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

“Fighting smoking is more difficult than fighting the use of drugs,” said Malek Habashneh, director of the ministry’s awareness department.

“Using and trading with drugs is prohibited, and that is why it is easier to deal with the problem. But the sale and manufacture of cigarettes is allowed, which makes smoking more difficult to curb,” Habashneh argued.

The Public Heath Law was enforced in the Kingdom’s shopping malls and Queen Alia International Airport in March 2009, and in fast-food restaurants in June of the same year.

A Cabinet decision prohibiting smoking in ministries and public institutions went into force on May 25, 2010.

According to the law, smoking is prohibited in public places, which include hospitals, healthcare centres, schools, cinemas, theatres, libraries, museums, public and non-governmental buildings, public transport vehicles, airports, closed playgrounds, lecture halls and any other location to be determined by the health minister.

“Shops are allowed to sell tobacco without a licence,” Habashneh said, noting that this is one of the obstacles “we face in our attempts to reduce the prevalence of smoking and the availability of cigarettes”.

However, the ministry is currently working on bylaws to regulate the sale of cigarettes, he added.

Moreover, another bylaw will be issued soon to regulate the manufacturing and selling of “massell” — tobacco marinated in flavoured molasses used in arghilehs.

In addition, the ministry is currently working with the Finance Ministry to revisit the tax on tobacco and come up with a new system “in a bid to lower demand on cigarettes”.