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AMMAN — As the teachers' strike has entered its second week, a number of private schools across the Kingdom have opened their doors to Tawjihi students of public schools until teachers suspend the open strike.

A number of private schools, on their websites, have welcomed Tawjihi students of government-run schools enrolled in the scientific and literary streams to attend classes for free as of September 17 outside school hours from 3:30-8:00 pm.

Embodying national and educational responsibilities towards the schoolchildren who are most affected by the teachers' strike, a number of educational initiatives have been launched since teachers of public schools started their open strike last Sunday.

To alleviate students' burdens, Zarqa's private schools, in cooperation with Zarqa Private University and the governorate's Education Development Centre, issued the "our students are our responsibility..." initiative providing the central region's students with schooling and transportation.

In separate individual initiatives, a number of teachers of public schools have given classes for Tawjihi students in a number of subjects, while refusing to teach certain courses in compliance with the decision of the Jordan Teachers' Association.

The teachers’ open strike started last Sunday and no agreement has been reached with the government regarding their demand for a 50-per cent pay raise.

The open strike was announced after a sit-in in Amman last Thursday, during which the Jordan Teachers Association claimed violations were committed against its members.

The Public Security Department denied the allegations, but confirmed that 50 teachers were detained during the protest for “illegally forcing their way through to Fourth Circle”.

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) said that a pre-cast concrete girder slipped during its installation on Monday night on Army Street, with no injuries reported. 

The installation process was filmed, and there will be a review of all the technical measures taken in order to determine who is responsible for the error, GAM said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Tuesday. 

Amman Mayor Yousef Sharawbeh said that the error occurred while installing the pre-cast girder as part of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

Project Director Riyad Kharabsheh noted that traffic returned to normal after the incident was handled, according to the statement.

Later on Tuesday, during a workshop held at the Jordanian Society for Science and Culture, Shawarbeh announced that GAM allocated JD4 million this year to support the public transport sector, and the budget could increase next year. 

He said when public transport reaches the city's outskirts, it could bring development and encourage investors to build projects outside the city at lesser costs. 

GAM's strategy that was prepared three years ago and ends at the end of 2020 covers public transport, legislation development and e-transformation and investment, which Shawarbeh said are separate from daily tasks and responsibilities related to services and infrastructure. 

On public transport, he said the focus now is on the BRT's infrastructure, which will be complete at the end of next year except for the Tareq intersection area in Tabarbour due to the late floating of the tender.

He also highlighted GAM's Amman Vision Investment and Development Company's work in running 135 public transport "Amman buses" after studying daily traffic in the capital, affirming that an additional 151 buses will be added to the services this October with e-payment and accessibility for people with disabilities, in addition to having two monitoring cameras installed, one directed at the driver and payment device and the other at the rest of the bus. 

In two weeks, the three-month trial period for the Amman buses will end, the mayor said, noting that afterwards screens will be installed at the bus stops in order to indicate arrival times. 

AMMAN — Senate President Faisal Fayez and Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Tuesday separately met Qatari Ambassador to Jordan Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al Thani over means to strengthen bilateral relations in various fields and maintain cooperation and consultation on issues of mutual concern.

Highlighting the Jordanian-Qatari “deep-rooted” ties, Fayez expressed the Kingdom's keenness on building on these relations in a way that serves the best interests of both countries and the Arab world, highlighting the importance of expanding prospects of joint cooperation between the two countries in political, economic, investment and parliamentary fields.

The Qatari envoy, in implementation of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani’s directives, voiced his country's keen interest in bolstering ties with Jordan.

Qatar will put in work to activate mutual coordination, especially in light of the challenges facing the region, the Qatari diplomat said, affirming Doha’s support of comprehensive economic development projects, while reaffirming the Gulf country’s keenness on supporting Jordan.

Meanwhile, Tarawneh highlighted that the two countries’ ties are based on mutual respect, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The two sides also stressed the centrality of the Palestinian cause, with Tarawneh noting the two countries' unified stance on defending the Palestinian cause in all international arenas.

The Qatari envoy lauded the Kingdom's stances towards Arab causes, topped by the Palestinian cause.

He also expressed appreciation for the Jordanian expatriates’ competencies in Doha, highlighting their role in the development process in his country.  

AMMAN — Jordan is committed to multilateral nuclear-weapon disarmament in the Middle East and to creating a region free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Chairman Khaled Toukan said on Tuesday. 

During the 63rd Annual Regular Session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) General Conference in Vienna, Toukan underlined Jordan’s commitment to combatting the spread of nuclear weapons and ensuring that nuclear energy is utilised strictly for peaceful purposes, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

During the conference, Toukan briefed attendees on the progress of Jordan’s nuclear energy programme, which includes establishing the Jordan Nuclear Power Plant and the Jordan Research and Training Nuclear Reactor. 

The agency’s chairman also pointed to the Kingdom’s Uranium mining project and efforts to develop human resources in the field. 

Toukan expressed Jordan’s dedication to the guarantees system as a vital part of international efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and limit the use of nuclear energy to peaceful purposes.

The participating Jordanian delegation held a number of meetings with Arab and foreign partakers over means of cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as well as meetings with high-ranking officials from the IAEA.  

Talks during these meetings addressed developments to the Jordanian nuclear programme and matters of technical cooperation with the IAEA. 

On the sidelines of the conference, the JAEC organised a roundtable discussion that tackled the Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, during which a number of scientists from Europe, Africa and southeast Asia gave presentations on the role of synchrotron light in development and science. 

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation on Tuesday said that it had uncovered several violations on water mains in the Jiza area, which were used to illegally siphon off water to houses in the area.

The ministry said that, based on inspection campaigns and tip-offs received by the unified complaints centre at 117116, residents of Jiza said that they had not received water due to the illegal diversion of water, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The ministry set up a taskforce, in cooperation with the Amman governor, the Royal Badia Forces and the Water Authority of Jordan, which resulted in uncovering eight violations on water mains in Jiza to supply more than 25 houses and livestock barns with water amounts exceeding 500 cubic metres. 

The illegal fixtures were dismantled and an investigation is under way, Petra said.

The ministry underlined that the national campaign to end all forms of water theft and violations is still ongoing, urging the public to cooperate with the authorities by reporting violations on water resources and networks.

In 1997, the ministry banned the drilling of wells to limit random pumping of water and preserve aquifers from depletion and salinity.

International studies indicate that water levels at several aquifers have been dropping at a rate of one metre per year, according to the ministry, which noted that more than 50 million cubic metres of underground water are being extracted through indiscriminate pumping.

AMMAN — The Agriculture Ministry coordinates with farmers to protect local produce, the Jordan Valley Farmers Union said on Tuesday. 

There were reports of farmers protesting against the import of citrus fruits from abroad, President of the Jordan Valley Farmers Union Adnan Khaddam told The Jordan Times.

 He confirmed that Minister of Agriculture and Environment Ibrahim Shahahdeh has halted the import from the beginning of August until February next year in order to protect local fruit crops. 

"The farmers provided the ministry with the production rates and the minister took the decision based on them. Last year the sales of citrus fruit in particular went well," Khaddam said.

However, according to Khaddam, farmers are suffering in general because of the continuing deterioration of the sector. Around 23,000 of them are wanted in light of financial dues accumulated because of the loans they took to work on their lands and the losses they suffered afterwards, he said. 

Khaddam expected that the space of farming lands will drop down by 40 to 50 per cent as of this season, and said about 20 per cent of those who are able to retain their lands will not be able to handle the finances of farming and planting on them, which evinces how the sector is “falling apart and requires immediate attention”.

Nawash Al Yazjeen, a farmer from the Jordan Valley, told The Jordan Times that ever since the Syrian crisis and closures of borders in 2011, the export routes to Europe and Russia closed, which is "the main and direct reason why the agricultural sector in Jordan suffers".

Farmers are unable to practise their profession either because of accumulated debts, the inability to export or fear of investing and then suffering losses, he said.

"There is enough produce to cover the Kingdom's needs but the surplus goes nowhere and ends up turning into losses," Yazjeen said.

The private-sector factories that provide farmers with farming materials, such as fertilisers and agricultural vaccines, are in debt by more than JD450 million, according to Yazjeen. 

There used to be around 70,000 greenhouses in the Jordan Valley, 30,000 of which were designated for European and Russian produce.

The produce was delivered through Jordanian traders who had agreements with Russian and Turkish traders and transported it inside refrigerator trucks from the valley, so that in seven to eight days it would reach Europe and Russia through Syria and Turkey, he said. 

"The only solution is to find export routes to those markets as the government does not have enough money in the budget to support farmers, and using planes to deliver cargo would be very expensive,” he noted.

Citrus farmer Khaled Farah said that the import of the fruit has stopped, praising the minister's efforts to help farmers in this regard.

"Last year's season went well; this year's season is going well, and we hope that things turn out for the better in the future too," he said. 

AMMAN — The revenues of the telecommunications and information technology sectors by the end of 2018 reached $2.2 billion, marking a 4.5 per cent growth rate for the two sectors combined, the ICT Association of Jordan (Int@j) announced on Tuesday.

According to an Int@j survey, $1.42 billion of revenue was attributed to the telecommunications sector, with a growth rate of 1.5 per cent, and $750 million in revenue to the IT sector, that grew by 10.7 per cent, attributing this increase to tax incentives endorsed in 2016.

The survey was based on data Int@j collected from ICT companies in the Kingdom, and showed that Jordan is still a strategic destination for ICT sectors in the region, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

A total of 17,698 employees worked for the ICT sectors in 2018, without any change in the number when compared to 2017, Int@j said, noting that the sector witnessed “strong” female participation, as opportunities for women increased by 3 per cent. Males occupy 67 per cent of the total jobs in the sector.

As for exports, the IT sector’s exports in 2018 totalled $262 million, where the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Iraq amounted to 60.5 per cent of the sector’s exports, while local revenues stood at $487 million, which means that 65 per cent of the revenues were generated from the local economy, according to Petra. 

The association said that despite the 19 per cent increase in local IT revenue in 2018, the sector’s growth rate in revenue went down by 2.2 per cent.  

The investment volume in the telecommunications sector went down in 2018 by 9.5 per cent to $192 million, Petra reported. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Omar Razzaz on Tuesday highlighted the importance of specialty health centres opened by the government in providing better services and mitigating the pressure on public hospitals.

During his visit to the Abu Nsair general health centre, recently turned into a specialty centre, Razzaz said the government has completed 12 specialty centres across the Kingdom. 

All centres will offer 24-hour emergency services as well as an in-house general practitioner, a pharmacy, an ambulance and a number of specialty clinics, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

AMMAN — Jordanian poet and novelist Yahya Nuaimi, also known as Amjad Naser, has been presented with the State Appreciation and Encouragement Award in the field of literature.

A Royal Decree issued last week, conferred the award on Nuaimiin light of his contributions to the literary field, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

During a felicitation ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Omar Razzaz, Minister of Culture Mohammad Abu Rumman shed light on the writer’s “esteemed stature” in the Arab cultural scene “in view of what he has contributed to literature, thought, culture and poetry”. 

AMMAN — The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) has received three trucks donated by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) to support the organisation’s logistical operations.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, JHCO’s Secretary General Ayman Mifleh said the gesture reflects continued cooperation between the charity and TIKA.

He added that the partnership between the two sides is “strong and multifaceted”, noting their cooperation in distributing food care packages and aid to underprivileged families. The ceremony was attended by the Turkish minister of culture and tourism and TIKA’s president, according to Petra.