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AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah, in a phone call on Wednesday, congratulated Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz on Saudi Arabia’s successful efforts to broker the Riyadh Agreement between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council as a key step towards a comprehensive political solution to safeguard Yemen’s unity and stability.

The phone call covered the deep-rooted ties between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as current regional developments, according to a Royal Court statement.

The importance of maintaining coordination on issues of mutual concern, in line with common interests and in service of Arab and Islamic causes, was also stressed.

AMMAN — The Jordan-Mexico Parliamentary Friendship Committee, headed by MP Haitham Ziadeen, on Wednesday met Mexican Ambassador to Jordan Roberto Rodriguez over enhancing bilateral relations in various political, economic, tourism and parliamentary fields and removing all obstacles hindering the advancement of mutual ties between the countries, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Rodriguez highlighted the Kingdom’s global position, noting that Jordan plays a prominent role in addressing regional issues.

He also expressed his country’s readiness to advance Jordanian-Mexican cooperation, mainly through economic and parliamentary ties. As part of Mexico’s humanitarian efforts in Jordan, Rodriguez said, the Mexican embassy will hold one-month free medical events across the Kingdom’s underserviced areas.

AMMAN — A Jordanian economic delegation is scheduled to visit Manama early next week to take part in the 18th session of the Conference of Arab Businessmen and Investors, which is being organised by the Union of Arab Chambers, in collaboration with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Arab League, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation and the UNIDO International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment in Bahrain.

Under the theme “Investing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Digital Economy”, the conference will be held under the patronage of Bahraini King Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifah, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Jordan Chamber of Commerce President Nael Kabariti, who will head the delegation, said that the gathering provides an opportunity to establish partnerships and business networking among participants, noting that the government is proceeding with upgrading the Kingdom’s digital infrastructure. 

AMMAN — A ceremony was held on Tuesday to award certificates to nearly 300 graduates of the industry-based training and certification programme Pathways to Professionalism, which is supported by the USAID Building Economic Sustainability through Tourism Project (BEST) and managed by the Jordan Hotels Association (JHA), according to a joint statement from USAID and the JHA.

The programme seeks to enable employees at Jordan’s hotels to improve their skills in five professions, including food production, housekeeping, food and beverage service, concierge and front office, and offers four levels of training for management staff, according to the statement.

Programme graduates who were certified on Wednesday represented hotels in Amman, the Dead Sea and Petra. The programme has certified more than 1,000 staff and trained 500 supervisors within registered hotels, according to the statement.

AMMAN — Ten companies benefitting from an agreement to simplify the rules of origin with the European Union (EU) have exported goods worth 42 million euros since the agreement came into force in 2016, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply. 

Fifteen companies received permits to benefit from the simplified rules of origin under the agreement, but only 10 of them, working in the plastic and metal, clothing, electrical devices and utilities industries, exported their products, ministry spokesperson Yanal Barmawi told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

“The export destinations include Spain, Cyprus, France, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden,” Barmawi noted.

At the end of 2018, the deal included all companies across Jordan under new amendments.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri said in a press conference at the end of 2018 that the amendments eased Syrian refugees’ employment conditions, in addition to geographically expanding the agreement, which was previously restricted to 18 development and industrial zones.

Each industrial institution or production line allocated for exports must now employ Syrian refugees at no less than 15 per cent of their total workforce, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported at the time. 

AMMAN — Jordan Investment Commission (JIC) Chairman Khaled Wazani on Wednesday said that his regular meetings with investors are part of the keenness of the government and the commission to communicate with investors about their issues and concerns, seeking to reach quick solutions.

During a meeting with investors at the industrial compound estate in Sahab, Wazani said that, as the representative of investors to the government, the JIC will be restructured to better represent and fulfil the aspirations of these investors, according to a JIC statement.

The JIC is concerned with developing a strategy that shows its dedication to remedying the challenges facing investors, which will include facilitating procedures pertaining to investment and adopting partnership mechanisms among government institutions through electronic means, Wazani was quoted in the statement as saying. 

Investors desire incentives, but are more concerned with simpler procedures pertaining to the entire investment process and the revenues that their investments generate, he added, noting that the investment map will be updated to serve that end. 

For his part, Dawoud Iskandarani, deputy general manager of the estate, highlighted the importance of communication between government decision makers and their private sector partners in making investment decisions, so as to contribute to developing several sectors and addressing poverty and unemployment. 

AMMAN — Jordanian Hiba Labadi and Abdulrahman Meri on Wednesday arrived in the Kingdom after their release from Israeli administrative detention, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In a tweet on Monday, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said that relentless efforts by His Majesty King Abdullah and the government were behind their return.

The Foreign Ministry had called for the release of Labadi and Meri who were put under administrative detention by Israeli forces, which is a breach of international law.

Following His Majesty’s directives to take all necessary measures to release the two detainees, the ministry had made continuous efforts and intensive calls via diplomatic and political channels to urge Israel to release the detained Jordanians, whose health conditions have deteriorated since the beginning of their administrative detention.

In response to the ministry's demands, Israel pledged to hand over Labadi and Meri before the end of the week.

Labadi had been on a hunger strike for a month and her health has suffered as a result. Meri suffers from cancer.  

Labadi was transferred on Friday to a health centre under prison administration for treatment, in response to the ministry’s demands.

The Jordanian ambassador to Tel Aviv arrived home on October 30 in protest and to discuss Israel's prolonged detention of the two Jordanians.

Earlier in October, the ministry also summoned the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires in the Kingdom to protest against the continued detention of Labadi and Meri, and handed him a letter demanding their immediate release.

Israel had detained Labadi and Meri at the King Hussein Border Crossing in the Jordan Valley on August 20 and September 2, respectively.

JERASH — The people of Jerash have voiced their condemnation of the stabbing attack against eight people, including four tourists and four Jordanians in Jerash on Wednesday. They described the attack as “heinous, sinful and vile”, saying that it “does not correspond to the local community's norms and teachings”.

On Wednesday, security agencies reported that a man injured eight people in a random stabbing outside the Roman City of Jerash, some 45 kilometres north of Amman.

Among the injured are four tourists, including three Mexicans and a Swiss national. The condition of one of the Mexican tourists and a Jordanian, who is a tour guide, remains critical, and they were transferred to the King Hussein Medical Centre via helicopter.

The eight victims were initially rushed to the Jerash Public Hospital. Health Minister Saad Jaber, the Mexican ambassador, the northern region police director and director of the Jerash Public Hospital checked on the injured.

A driver and a tour guide were among the injured, and a number of other tour guides were eyewitnesses to the stabbing. They also helped in the arrest of the assailant.

"The assailant was stopped by a police officer, a guide and a driver," an eyewitness, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Jordan Times.

"All the locals who were at the scene participated in stopping him from attacking more people," the eyewitness added.

"He tried to enter the ancient site, however, people ran after him and forced him back, where he was stopped by the police officer, guide and driver who had been stabbed," he explained.

"This stranger attacked everyone in his way from Hadrian's Gate to the Philadelphia Gate. Tourists, a policeman and brother Zaher [a guide] were injured," tour guide Nader Habaybeh, who joined in chasing the assailant, told The Jordan Times.

"The nightmare ended after more policemen pounded him, stripped him of the knife and cleaver and arrested him," Habaybeh added.

Members of the local community in Jerash issued a statement condemning the attack, describing it as "an act of cowardice".

On social media, residents of Jerash expressed disapproval of such an attack against innocent people.

"This coward will not affect the security of our country," a resident commented on a post with the assailant's photo on Facebook.

Sources at the Public Security Department said that the suspect has been identified and arrested. They added that an investigation is under way.

AMMAN — Eight people, including four tourists and four Jordanians, were injured on Wednesday after they were stabbed by a man in Jerash, according to authorities.

The injured tourists include three Mexicans and a Swiss national. The condition of one of the Mexican tourists and a Jordanian, who is a tour guide, remains critical, and they were transferred to the King Hussein Medical Centre via helicopter, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The eight victims were initially transferred to the Jerash Public Hospital. Health Minister Saad Jaber, the Mexican ambassador, the northern region police director and director of the Jerash Public Hospital checked on the injured.

Sources at the Public Security Department said that the suspect has been identified and arrested. They added that an investigation is under way.

AMMAN — Five Jordanian women entrepreneurs recently won an award for the Best Technology Project at the US-held TechWomen programme for their mobile application Sanad, designed to support young people suffering from mental health issues in Jordan. 

The five entrepreneurs Mais Khader, Mais Al Muhtaseb, Hanan Khalil, Esraa Alsanie and Reema Diab, received the seed-grant prize funded by Google, VMware and Okta, Inc after they were selected from among 3,260 women in technology from around the world, they told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Participants chosen from 21 countries joined in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco at the end of September for the programme. 

"Sanad is going to change the stereotypical way people view mental health treatment, giving better focus to addressing mental health issues in the upcoming few months," the entrepreneurs said over WhatsApp from Washington, DC, where they received the award. 

In the Sanad application, chats are encrypted and private, which gives young people the opportunity to speak freely with psychiatrists and therapists, fully protecting the patients' information and secrecy, according to Alsanie, founder of EnvaTechs, who was also chosen by the programme as one of the most influential women in the field of technology. 

Sanad is also the first app programmed in Arabic to have content raising awareness on mental health issues, Alsanie added.

"The app allows the patients to use it anonymously, protecting the secrecy of their identities and issues, receiving the help they need without having to physically go to a clinic and face any stigma from society," said Diab, who won an award for one of the best women in the technology sector from the Miracle Foundation in the US.

Diab is founder and CEO of Galaxy Organisation, an NGO that seeks to empower women and youth through technology.

She was also listed as a top entrepreneur in Berlin, Germany, with an MA in business management from the US and a BSc in accounting from the University of Jordan, and she is currently pursuing her PhD in the UK, in the field of managing global organisations. 

Khalil is an associate professor of neurological physical therapy in the faculty of applied medical sciences at the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

She said that Sanad will integrate artificial intelligence, through which “the experience will become more personal and familiar for users”. 

For her part, Khader, who obtained her BA in industrial engineering from the University of Jordan and works as a data analyst, said the app will include a hotline for mental health-related emergencies.

Al Muhtaseb, who obtained her BSc in Computer Engineering from Yarmouk University, said the application also offers remote learning services, which, with the help of organisations that work in the field of mental health and education, could provide workshops for students and societies. 

"We aim to reach the largest possible number of schools to spread awareness about the app and how it can be used step by step, while also deconstructing the stigma associated with mental illness," Al Muhtaseb, who works as a software engineer, said. 

In 2018, suicide rates in Jordan increased by about 10 per cent; Jordan has been identified as a country in massive need of a “stronger mental health system”, according to the TechWomen website.

The Sanad mobile application will focus on education, support and interaction with the aid of its features, including educational videos, interactive learning games, articles from influencers and success stories and testimonials from previous patients. 

The app also features audio-video conferencing to facilitate chatting with professional counsellors and sending push notifications for tips and advice, the website adds.

In 2017 as well, the Jordanian team participating in the TechWomen 17 programme won the same prize for a project called “Orphans in Jordan”, which focuses on the low percentage of orphans going to university due to psychological and financial problems.

TechWomen is an initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

It is held annually to empower, connect and support the next generation of female leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by providing them with access and opportunity to advance their careers, pursue their dreams and become role models for other women and girls in their communities, according to the organisation’s website.