Local

AMMAN — The new Jordanian field hospital team "Gaza 40" arrived in the coastal enclave on Wednesday to replace the "Gaza 39" team, whose members returned to the Kingdom after concluding their mission. 

"Gaza 40" Commander of Col. Ibrahim Masaafeh said the cadres have started preparing to start serving patients, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — Several steps will be taken this year to tap the potential to strengthen Sri Lankan-Jordanian cooperation in various areas, according to Sri Lankan Ambassador Abdul Latiff Lafeer.

Sri Lanka and Jordan, which established diplomatic ties in 1965, enjoy solid relations and trade exchange is steadily growing, Lafeer said on the occasion of the Sri Lankan national day, which the embassy marks on Thursday. 

However, the potential remains high for exploring new areas of cooperation, especially that Sri Lanka is embarking on a series of major projects in different areas, the ambassador told The Jordan Times in an interview.

In the next two months, a meeting for the Jordanian-Sri Lankan joint committee will be held in Amman to explore areas of cooperation and enhance ties, he said.

Prior to the meeting, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Jordan Chamber of Commerce are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding to increase trade ties and exchange, Lafeer added.

Trade exchange between the two countries in 2014 was around $45 million, of which $36 million were exports of tea from Sri Lanka to Jordan. 

In addition, Sri Lanka exports electronic items, material for the garment industry and rubber material to Jordan. 

"The trade volume is steadily growing but the potential to increase is high, especially that Sri Lanka is a growing market, where its economy rose by about 6 per cent in 2015," said the ambassador.

As Sri Lanka is embarking on a $40 billion project to turn the country into a hyper centre over the next 15 years, the ambassador said Jordanian developers and contractors can play a significant role in the mega project due to the know-how and expertise they enjoy in this regard.

The project includes creating an aviation city, a maritime city, a knowledge city, and industrial parks, IT centres and other facilities.

"We are even looking forward to attracting Jordanian investments to the project as they will have access to several countries in the area," said Lafeer, adding that Sri Lanka is working on another project to divide the country into 45 industrial zones.

The ambassador said a catalogue show will be held in Amman this year, where several Sri Lankan companies will highlight their products and services in various areas.

The show will be followed by a Sri Lankan business delegation visit to the Kingdom to meet with counterparts to explore mutual cooperation.

Turning to tourism, the ambassador said some 4,000 Jordanians visited Sri Lanka in 2015.

"I will soon meet with several tour operators to look into what needs to be done to increase tourism… There is a great potential even to attract Sri Lankan tourists to Jordan as the Kingdom is home to various religious, historic and tourism sites that are worthy of visiting," he noted.

According to the ambassador, some 1.8 million tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2015 out of whom 6 per cent were from the Middle East.

Lafeer noted that there are 14,000 highly-skilled Sri Lankan workers in the garment sector in Jordan, where the total volume of Sri Lankan investments is around $30 million.

There are also some 5,000 Sri Lankan caregivers working in the country, said the ambassador.

As Sri Lanka imports around 800,000 metric tonnes of fertilisers for the consumption of its agricultural sector, the diplomat said his country is keen on looking into means of cooperating with Jordan in this regard.

The ambassador said there is room for increased cooperation in counterterrorism as well.

Highlighting Sri Lanka’s “success in annihilating terrorism", the diplomat said his country is willing to share its expertise with Jordan. 

AMMAN — HRH Prince Hassan on Wednesday attended a book launch at the Arab Thought Forum, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The book is titled “Jomhoriati” (My Republic) and written by Lebanese author Nizar Younes. At the ceremony, Prince Hassan said reform is an inevitable necessity, as it represents the greater interests of the public.

He called for a farsighted vision towards the prosperity of Arab countries, noting that the Arab Thought Forum plans to produce research papers for each Arab country on future visions for their prosperity. 

AMMAN — In January, 1,220 tourists visited the tombs of the companions of Prophet Mohammad who died in Mutah Battle, Osama Tarawneh, supervisor of the Southern Mazar shrines, said Wednesday. 

He told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that 701 Muslim visitors came from foreign countries, 234 from Arab countries and 285 visitors were Jordanians. The shrines house the tombs of Jaffar Bin Abi Taleb, Zaid Bin Haretha and Abdullah Bin Rawaha.

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Commerce President Issa Murad on Wednesday called on countries participating in the London donor conference to support the Kingdom and provide financial assistance in the face of the refugee burden.

Major donor countries should turn their words into actions, Murad said, noting that Jordan is in urgent need to continue its humanitarian role, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He added that the Kingdom is looking forward to attracting more investments from donor countries to help the economy overcome the challenges it is going through and enable it to generate jobs for Jordanians and refugees, Petra added.

AMMAN — The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) and the We Are All Jordan Youth Commission, supported by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency, have distributed 400 aid parcels containing food and blankets to underprivileged Jordanian and Syrian families, according to Othman Abbadi, a coordinator at the commission.

Othman added that the commission works under the “we volunteer for Jordan” programme in cooperation with the JHCO to facilitate providing assistance to needy families, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — Public Security Department (PSD) pilot Lt. Hazem Hassouneh was laid to rest in Sahab on Wednesday after he was killed in a helicopter crash during a night training mission near Zai, Salt on Tuesday night.

PSD Director Maj. Gen. Atef Saudi, Civil Defence Department Director Lt. Gen. Talal Kofahi, Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Maj. Gen. Ziad Majali and Royal Jordanian Air Force Commander Major Mansour Jbour participated in the funeral, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Hassouneh's co-pilot, Captain Hussein Najdawi, was injured in the crash, which the PSD said was caused by a technical malfunction.

Saudi visited the Hassouneh’s condolences house and expressed his sympathies over the death of the pilot, Petra added. 

The PSD has formed a team to investigate the crash.

Hassouneh was the pilot who took The Jordan Times photographer Osama Aqarbeh in a trip over Amman to take aerial photos of the capital last month.

Aqarbeh described the late pilot as a decent and kind man who was cooperative when asked to fly over the same area again to enable the photographer take clearer pictures.

Hassouneh’s uncle, Ibrahim, was a major with RJAF. He died in April last year when his jet fighter crashed in the north of the Kingdom during a training mission.

AMMAN — Jordan is working on an approach to turn the refugee crisis into a development opportunity, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury said on Wednesday. 

"We are open for business and we want new investments that will create jobs for Jordanians and initiatives that can create also jobs for Syrian refugees in a manner that is not at the expense of Jordanians and in areas where Jordan has non-Jordanian labour," Fakhoury said at a conference hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London.

He stressed the need to create economic value to benefit "our citizens".

The minister outlined Jordan's approach to engage the private sector in the Kingdom's economic response to the Syrian refugee crisis. 

He said the Jordanian holistic approach on the economic response to the Syrian refugee crisis is based on three main pillars, according to a ministry statement. 

The first is turning the Syrian refugee crisis into a development opportunity that attracts new investments and opens up the EU market with simplified rules of origin and creates jobs for Jordanians and Syrian refugees whilst supporting the post-conflict Syrian economy.

The second pillar is rebuilding Jordanian host communities by adequately financing, through grants, the Jordan Response Plan (2016-2018) to ensure the resilience of host communities. 

The third pillar entails mobilising sufficient grants and concessionary financing to support the macroeconomic framework and to address Jordan’s financing needs over the next three years as it enters a new Extended Fund Facility agreement with the IMF. 

Jordan has been working with the international community to engage the private sector through the creation of a "compact" that provides benefits for both investors and refugees, Fakhoury added. 

The benefits, he said, include access to an expanded, formal workforce as Syrian refugees will be provided with work permits and allowed to work in Special Economic Zones as well as labour-intensive sectors. 

Other benefits include additional incentives for early mover investors through grants for training and visas to incentivise job creation, improved trade access to the EU for goods and services made in Jordan and access to expanded public procurement programmes.

"This increased activity will benefit refugees, Jordan as a country, as well as the region," he said. 

"We are open to improving the conditions necessary for the private sector to deepen its economic engagement in our country... and we are committed to doing what it would take for you to seriously consider Jordan as a place in which to grow your respective businesses in a way that benefits the refugees and our nation," Fakhoury added.

The conference called for a new approach to tackle the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war, an EBRD statement said.

EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti opened the conference by announcing plans for a financing package worth 900 million euros for Turkey and Jordan, two of the EBRD countries that have been most seriously affected by the exodus of Syrians escaping from the violence in their home country. 

The bank would be able to finance up to 500 million euros in new transactions subject to mobilising an additional 400 million euros in grants, Chakrabarti said. 

The conference — also attended by Muhammed Murtaza Yetiş, chief adviser to the Turkish premier on refugees and humanitarian aid, and Lebanon's Education Minister Elias Bou-Saab — stressed the importance of engaging the private sector in helping to address the immediate infrastructure requirements caused by the influx of refugees and also helping to create jobs, especially by the development of labour intensive small- and medium-sized enterprise.

Private sector involvement would also bring necessary skills to economic development and help reduce the impact of responding to the crisis on stretched public sector budgets, the conference concluded. 

Business representatives at the conference stressed that governments have to take steps to make it easier for the private sector to operate by responding more quickly to rapidly changing circumstances, the statement said. 

Speakers said that in the development of small business, special emphasis has to be put on firms employing women and youth who constitute a large share of the refugees.

They called for programmes to identify refugees’ skills and match them with potential shortages in host countries. 

The conference also discussed the role of the private sector in upgrading municipal services in an efficient and sustainable way. 

Chakrabarti is scheduled to report on the conclusions of the EBRD conference and on the EBRD’s own proposals at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference 2016 in London on Thursday.

AMMAN — A 75-year-old man died on Wednesday in the capital's 8th Circle area in a hit-and-run incident, the Civil Defence Department (CDD) said. 

CDD personnel transferred the body to the King Hussein Medical Centre, according to a CDD statement. 

Also in Amman, four people were injured after a vehicle overturned on Medina Munawara Street. 

The injured were taken to Al Bashir Public Hospital, where they were listed in fair condition.

In Madaba, four people were injured when their vehicle overturned, according to a CDD statement. They were taken to Al Nadim Public Hospital, where they were reported to be in fair condition. 

Irbid CDD personnel dealt with an incident where four people suffered breathing difficulties after inhaling gas from a wood burning heater in Kfar Awan. 

CDD cadres administered first aid to them before taking them to Princess Raya Hospital, where they were listed in fair condition.

Heater-related accidents in Jordan have claimed over 20 lives since last November, according to CDD figures.

Last winter, 307 incidents resulted in 23 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

CDD officials have repeatedly issued warnings urging the public not to keep heaters on for long periods and to ventilate their homes.

AMMAN — New challenges in the region — including the refugee crisis, terrorism and extremism — are affecting the well-being of women and children, and must be urgently addressed, participants at a Euro-Med round-table discussion said on Wednesday.

The recommendation was made during the Regional Roundtable from the Ministerial Conclusions on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society to Gender Equality Policy Making in the Euro-Med Region, organised by the Social Development Ministry and the Euromed Feminist Initiative (IFE-EFI), and supported by the EU.

High-level officials — including EU ambassadors and representatives from the ministry, together with civil society partners and legal experts from Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Palestine  — attended the one-day event.

The participants also said governments should be more serious in applying international conventions related to women and to remove discriminatory language and images from school textbooks.

They stressed that governments in the region should “recognise and implement the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and consider it as reference because it is conclusive when it comes to women’s rights and their empowerment on all levels”.

One of the recommendations also stressed the need to encourage “freedom of beliefs and choice and the need to separate religion from the state in order to prevent certain entities or individuals from using religion as a means to impose extremist beliefs and ideologies”.

Speaking at the meeting, EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana said the consecutive political and security crises are “forcing countries to divert their attention from ensuring that women achieve equal rights, that women and girls are safe and secure from violence and exploitation, and that together we manage to change the negative attitudes and behaviours surrounding women empowerment initiatives”.

Here in Jordan and especially after the spillover effects of the refugee crisis, Fontana added, the EU delegation actively works to “persuade the authorities to integrate the fundamental rights of individuals at the centre of the policy making processes and to put an end to all forms of discrimination against women and girls in legislation and in practice”.

“We highlight to the government and to the public at large that women and girls at the moment, especially if they live their lives as refugees or as internally displaced individuals, are vulnerable targets of sexual and economic exploitation, trafficking and violence, among other forms of hideous crimes,” the ambassador said.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the  EU delegation in Jordan to uphold “our promises to women and girls by aligning our programmes to the action plan and sustainable development goals. We also align our programmes with the government of Jordan's sector development strategies".

Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan stressed Jordan’s commitment towards Syrian refugees.

Jordan currently hosts around 1.3 million Syrians and “we have suffered as a result. But there are withstanding plans and a national response strategy that focus on social protection of women from violence and empowering them economically and socially”.

“We hope that the international community can support and fund these projects,” Abu Hassan stated.

The government, she added, has also formed a ministerial committee to empower women and support their causes and implement strategies to achieve these goals through the relevant ministries.

Also speaking at the meeting, Union for the Mediterranean Ambassador Delphine Borione said "gender equality is the key factor of empowering women”, noting that it “will surely ensure better female access for leadership positions, which will reflect positively on their rights”.

Wednesday's event, which was held at the ministry, was a follow up meeting on the third Ministerial Conference 2013 in Paris that reaffirmed the importance of gender equality policy making, especially in the context of the ongoing political transformations in the Southern Mediterranean, recognising the important role women play in them.

Government ministers at the Paris meeting committed to ensuring the equal rights of women and men to participate in political, economic, civil and social life, and combating all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

The Amman roundtable examined achievements and discussed common challenges in the implementation of the ministerial conclusions in Paris, going beyond them, and elaborating on major common regional priorities before the next ministerial conference.

French Ambassador to Jordan David Bertolotti stressed his government’s commitment to supporting and empowering women in the region and Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and other areas.

Also speaking during the meeting's evening session was Swedish Ambassador to Jordan Helena Rietz, who stressed that advancing the rights of women and girls is key to promoting and reinforcing the rule of law in all societies.

Enhanced gender equality in education and the labour market contribute to human development and economic growth, and empowering women is essential in promoting peace and security, Rietz noted.

“This is why the Arab world has to start advancing the gender agenda now, or it risks being left behind,” she warned.

There is a win-win opportunity in gender equality with enormous potential for growth both for individuals and society, Reitz noted, adding that “it is an opportunity the Middle East cannot afford to miss”.

The “Gender Regional Platform” is being applied by the IFE-EFI, which was contracted in December 2015 by the European Commission DG NEAR [Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations] to implement a project “to enhance regional sector cooperation based on EU rules and standards through policy dialogue and exchange of best practices with existing networks of stakeholders in the Southern Neighbourhood”. 

The project's activities include organising two regional dialogues with stakeholders, 13 national roundtables and a civil society Euro-Med women’s rights conference before the fourth Ministerial Conference on women’s rights.

IFE-EFI co-President Lilian Halls-French said during the meeting that “the present policies in numerous countries… and the political systems remain largely influenced by male-dominated structures, and values”.

Women are still considered second class citizens in some countries and “their rights are heavily hampered by the weight of culture and traditions, that  are increasingly threatened by conflicts, war, occupation, political and economical crises,  and the growing influence of political and religious extremists”, Halls-French said.

In this context, she added, the Euro-Med ministerial process on “Strengthening the Role of Women in Society” is a major tool to support the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality in the whole region.