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AMMAN — Minister of Public Works and Housing Falah Omoush and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye on Thursday discussed cooperation in the field of public works and housing in Ramallah.

Omoush pointed to the importance of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Kingdom and Palestine on roadwork and housing, stressing Jordan’s “firm stance”, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah, in supporting  the Palestinians’ pursuit of their rights and ending the occupation.

For his part, Ishtaye expressed the Palestinian government’s appreciation for His Majesty’s stance in support of the Palestinians’ rights, Petra reported. 

AMMAN — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Yousef Huneiti and Chairman of the Comoros Parliament Finance Committee MP Issa Suli on Thursday discussed the latest regional and international developments.

They also went over means to enhance military cooperation and coordination, as well as boosting bilateral relations to serve the interests of the two countries’ armies, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Hassan, chairman of the Higher Council for Science and Technology, on Thursday attended a ceremony to mark publishing the results of the sectoral studies conducted by the National Centre for Human Resources Development (NCHRD).

The event was held at the Royal Scientific Society’s headquarters with the attendance of Prime Minister Omar Razzaz, according to a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

The centre has conducted three studies that are set to guide policymaking in education, enhancing competencies and supporting employment and training programmes in the pharmaceutical, chemical, plastic, rubber and jewellery industries, according to the statement. 

During the ceremony, Prince Hassan highlighted the importance of active cooperation between sectors. 

The Prince stressed the need to “give priority to holistic analysis to shed light on foreign fields, in which various strategies and programmes can be implemented”. 

The premier reiterated the importance of relying on empirical studies in the decision-making process, noting the need to make their results accessible through employment platforms. 

Razzaz pointed to the importance of investing in training, as well as the partnership between the public and private sectors to attract the youth to the fields that need them the most.

AMMAN — Amman Mayor Yousef Shawarbeh on Thursday met with delegates representing Russian companies, headed by Deputy International Affairs Minister of Moscow City government Shutenko Oleg. 

During the meeting, Shawarbeh expressed the strong Jordanian-Russian bilateral relations, noting that GAM looks to further cooperation with Moscow's municipality and local administrations in the fields of city services, especially public transport, IT and investment, according to a Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The mayor voiced GAM's interest to renew an agreement signed between Amman and Moscow municipalities to create a joint work plan to exchange expertise and to benefit from the Russian experience in the field of smart cities. 

For his part, the head of the delegation said the challenges Amman and Moscow face are similar, according to the statement, which stated that some delegates represent companies that seek to establish investments in cooperation with their Jordanian business counterparts. 

The meeting was attended by Amman Deputy Mayor Mekhled Al Manaseer and City Director Ahmad Malkawi, and also included a presentation on the Moscow municipality’s development and services to address traffic jams, one of the most persistent challenges that the municipality resolved through a modern transportation system, according to the statement. 

Shutenko Oleg said that Moscow's population stands at 12 million, and it has five million vehicles, four international airports and around seven million people who regularly use the metro, noting that new metro stations are being opened on a monthly basis.

Shawarbeh noted that the most significant challenge in Amman is the traffic caused by the lack of a strong transportation system. As part of its plan to address traffic challenges, GAM has started operating 135 buses that support e-payment and are accessible for people with disabilities, the mayor said. 

AMMAN — Khirbet es-Samra, an archaeological site located some 50 kilometres north of Amman, contains the world’s only Aramaic-inscribed stelae (ancient gravestones), according to a French scholar.

Two kinds of stelae were excavated in the ancient cemetery within the site, noted Pierre-Louis Gatier from the University of Lyon. One type of stela has a regular gravestone shape dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, while the other unusually shaped stela dates from the 6th century AD, Gatier said.

The later stelae are inscribed either in Greek or Aramaic, noted Gatier, and all are Christian, displaying an engraved cross on the surface of each stela.

“Recent archaeological studies led by Abdallah Nabulsi have made it possible to study the tombs much better, showing that the cemetery was very large,” the professor said.

When the population converted to Christianity near the late 4th century AD, they did not change their names, Gatier noted, adding that their names remained a mix of Greek, Latin and Aramaic-Arabic local names.

“Greek and Latin names were not chosen because of their settlement but because they were popular and trendy,” he said. 

Typical Christian names, like the names of saints or prophets (Elias for example) appear on Christian stelae, in Greek or Aramaic, Gatier said, but not on older stelae, as people had not yet converted.

In 1925, French-Dominican priest Antoine-Raphael Savignac arrived at Khirbet es-Samra noticing that the stelae there were “exceptional”, adding that no others in Jordan or Palestine were found written in Aramaic. 

However, the Greek funeral inscriptions of Khirbet es-Samra are quite common and similar to those found in neighbouring villages in Jordan and Syria, he said.

AMMAN — The Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF), Save the Children and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) convened a high-level meeting on refugee education in Amman on Thursday, addressing one of the critical humanitarian issues born out of the global refugee crisis.

Held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania, the meeting brought together philanthropists, business leaders, donor institutions, and international and regional development organisations, and was chaired by Hassan Jameel, Community Jameel President, and Kevin Watkins, Save the Children UK Chief Executive Officer, according to a statement from Her Majesty’s office.

The Amman meeting followed a high-level roundtable held at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019, which the Queen also attended, and which was chaired by Hassan Jameel and Helle Thorning Schmidt, then chief executive officer of Save the Children International and former prime minister of Denmark. The meeting was also part of the build-up to the Global Refugee Forum, which will be held in Geneva in December by the UNHCR.

Speaking at the roundtable, Hassan Jameel, Community Jameel President, said: “At Community Jameel, we recognise the importance of education. By supporting teachers’ wellbeing, in conjunction with improving quality teaching practices and student learning, we have the opportunity to re-establish the transformative role of education in vulnerable children's lives.”

Save the Children UK Chief Executive Kevin Watkins said: “Save the Children is celebrating 100 years of humanitarian and development experience and we are delighted to be partnering with such high-level, global philanthropists on this critical agenda.

“Over half of the world’s 25 million refugees are children. If those children were a single country, that country would be the country with the world’s worst education indicators. More than half of the world’s school-aged refugee children — 4 million in total — are out of school. These children are being denied a source of hope for the future and the passport to a better future. This is one of the greatest moral challenges facing our generation; and turning a blind eye is not an option.” 

Among the attendees were senior representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UAE-based Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, the Saudi-based Alwaleed Philanthropies, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the LEGO Foundation, Schmidt Futures and the World Bank.

Jordan has a strong track record of welcoming and supporting refugees, and has become a leading venue for innovation in humanitarian development. Contributing to the country’s efforts in this field are QRF’s various technology-driven solutions to development challenges, including the foundation’s online education initiative, Edraak.

Following its initial launch by the Queen as an adult learning platform, Edraak partnered with Google.org and the Jack Ma Foundation to launch a K-12 platform, providing quality Arabic education materials to both children and adults, accessible for free to refugees and others across the region. 

Another programme, the Transforming Refugee Education towards Excellence (TREE) initiative, received a major boost with the announcement on Monday that philanthropic organisation Dubai Cares had committed $ 1.5 million to the programme.

TREE is an initiative of Save the Children and MIT J-WEL being piloted in Jordan, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and in collaboration with Community Jameel and Dubai Cares. Over a five-year period, it aims to equip Jordanian teachers with skills to deliver effective teaching, and to help students suffering from trauma overcome challenges. 

Established by Queen Rania in 2013, QRF aims to improve education outcomes in Jordan and the surrounding region, focusing its efforts on a range of overlapping areas including early childhood care and development, innovation in learning and teacher training. The foundation conducts education research and supports policy makers as they develop education programmes.

Community Jameel was established in 2003 to uphold the legacy of the late Abdul Latif Jameel, who supported and uplifted the disadvantaged in his community throughout his lifetimme. Community Jameel runs its programmes worldwide, collaborating with major international institutions and grassroots organisations, according to the statement.

AMMAN — President of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (APU) Atef Tarawneh on Thursday urged Arab parliaments to reject calls for normalisation with Israel.

Tarawneh made his remarks during the 26th session of the APU executive committee, which was kicked off in Amman, calling on Arab parliaments to abide by the recommendations made during the recent Amman-held conference of the APU over rejecting normalisation.  

He said that the occupation, which turns its back on international legitimacy resolutions, is still propagating "state terrorism", the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He also called for bringing the Palestinian cause, including Israeli violations against Jerusalem's holy sites, to the top of the Arab world's priorites, drawing attention to furthering coordination among Arab countries for the greater good.

He also exhorted Arab parliaments to exert pressure on their governments to strengthen Arab solidarity in the face of regional threats, referring to the recent drone attack that targeted two Aramco oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

He also highlighted the Kingdom's unaltered stances,  reaffirming its pledge not to accept any compromise that neglects the Palestinians’ legitimate right to statehood with East Jerusalem as its capital.  

Touching on the latest regional developments, Tarawneh reiterated the union’s solidarity with Saudi Arabia in all efforts towards maintaining the country’s sovereignty and security, while also expressing the union's support for the political process in Iraq.

The executive committee, during its 26th session, decided to refer its conclusions to the member states and parliamentary delegations ahead of the upcoming 30th APU conference, which will be hosted in  Abu Dhabi in March. 

Besides Jordan, 16 countries took part in the meetings including: The UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen.

Founded in 1974, the APU is an international organisation that aims at strengthening contacts and dialogue among Arab parliamentarians in order to coordinate Arab activities at various international forums, according to its website.

AMMAN — The Jordan Free Zones Investment Commission (FZIC) has recently proposed a set of measures to increase public revenues and stimulate the economy, including tax cuts on vehicles. 

FZIC President Mohammad Bostanji said earlier this week that such measures would increase Treasury revenues by 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2019.

The FZIC said it submitted its suggestions during a meeting on Tuesday with officials and private-sector representatives. “If these suggestions are implemented, the revenues might increase to more than 50 per cent in the first quarter of 2020,” Bostanji said.

The new tax hikes over the past three years all led to a halt in commercial activity in the auto sector and consequently a drop in revenues, Bostanji said. "They [taxes] were taken without consulting the sector."

The suggestions included the reduction of service tax from the current five per cent on pickup and diesel trucks to two per cent, Bostanji said.

Bostanji said the FZIC proposed reducing the weight tax on cars to JD250 for vehicles weighing up to 1,000kgs, JD350 for vehicles between 1,001kgs and 1,500kgs, and JD500 for vehicles weighing more than 1,500kgs.

For hybrid cars, Sostanji said that the by-law imposes an annual tax increase by 5 per cent, which in 2017 was 25 per cent, then 30 per cent in 2018 and now is 35 per cent. “This has caused confusion in the auto market," he said, adding that they proposed a fixed tax of 30 per cent. 

As for electric cars, Bostanji said they used to clear between 700-800 cars a month but the figure has gone down significantly due to the 25 per cent tax. “The commission proposed reducing it to 10 per cent.”

The proposed solutions aim at increasing the commercial activity in the auto and allied components sector, he said.

"If things remain the same, we will keep deteriorating and falling behind.  In 2016 we cleared around 6,000 cars a month and 72,000 vehicles in the whole year while in the first eight months of this year, we cleared only 20,000 cars.”

AMMAN — Royal Court Chief Yousef Issawi, head of the follow-up committee for the implementation of Royal initiatives, on Thursday  delivered 25 buses to charities and local institutions that sponsor youth, people with disabilities, orphans and the elderly.

During the ceremony, attended by Social Development Minister Basma Ishaqat, Issawi said that supporting youth and charities is in line with ongoing Royal Directives that seek to empower these institutions, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He also added that the Royal initiatives across various sectors reflect the King’s vision to take a qualitative leap through providing the best services for the public, which would improve the living standards of the underprivileged across the Kingdom.

Ishaqat said that the beneficiaries of this Royal initiative have been selected according to transparent criteria, noting that the ministry will follow up to make sure vehicles are being used for official business.

The Youth Ministry's Acting General Secretary Adel Maaytah said that the Royal initiatives have added value to sustainable development, highlighting that His Majesty's initiatives that target the youth sector have covered the Kingdom's districts, which shows that youth is one of His Majesty King Abdullah’s top priorities.

Local community representatives voiced their appreciation of the Royal initiative, which is expected to have a “positive” impact on the role of local institutions.

AMMAN — The Central Bank of Jordan has decided to lower interest rates by 0.25 per cent, ranging between 1.75 and 2 per cent.

The announcement was made on Thursday, being the second of its kind in less than two months.

"This is our response to the international and regional changes in interest rates," read a statement from the Central Bank.

Recently, the American Federal Reserve decided to lower its interest rates as well, and many banks around the world were quick to follow its lead.

"Although this is great for anyone thinking about getting a loan, the problem in Jordan is that banks do not necessarily follow the Central Bank's rules," said Osama Sultan, an economy professor at the Hashemite University.

The government's decision to float interest rates back in 1990 meant that it is now up to banks to set their interest rates at whatever percentage they feel "is best for them and their clients", Sultan pointed out.

 “The problem is, however, that a bank can demand outrageous interest rates and no one would be able to stop that,” he added.

For Mohammed Halhoul, an economist at a private marketing solutions company, the Central Bank's decision is "amazing if only it were sure to be followed".

"I think the government knows that their taxation is burdening, the living costs in Jordan are high, and the salaries are low, so I guess it is trying its best to help people cover their needs at least through good loans," he said over the phone.

"The government has to make sure, however, that banks will at least take the global reduction in interest rates into account," he concluded.