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AMMAN — The Senate finance committee on Tuesday approved the draft laws on the state budget and the budget of independent government institutions as referred by the Lower House.

At a committee meeting, Municipal Affairs Minister Walid Masri briefed senators on his ministry’s budget allocations.

Some JD205 million of the JD340 million budget, he said, was allocated for capital spending in 2015, compared with only JD7 million in 2012 out of a JD180 million budget. The ministry’s debt dropped to JD79 million in 2015, compared with JD120 million in 2013, Masri said.

AMMAN — The committee of the families of missing and imprisoned Jordanians on Tuesday organised a solidarity sit-in with Jordanian prisoners in Israel Abdullah Abu Jaber and Akram Abu Zahrah.

The event, held near the Prime Ministry, aimed at highlighting Abu Jaber’s demands for release or transportation to Jordan to continue the remainder of his 20-year prison term, according to a statement from the media team supporting Jordanian prisoners in Israel, Fedaa.

The protesters also called on the authorities to follow up on Abu Zahrah’s case and contact the Israeli government over readiness to receive him after finishing his sentence last Thursday, the statement added.

AMMAN — Irbid police late Monday arrested a suspected drug dealer, a security source said Tuesday.

Acting on information they received, police caught the suspect while attempting to sell drugs to another person.

The suspect, a Syrian, was found in possession of “a large amount” of narcotics, the source told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, adding that investigation is under way.

AMMAN — Seven people were injured on Tuesday in Zarqa in a collision involving a winch truck and a vehicle, according to a Civil Defence Department (CDD) statement.

CDD cadres administered first aid to the injured and took them to Zarqa Public Hospital where they were listed in fair condition.

Six people were also injured when their vehicle overturned in Awajan. CDD cadres took them to Prince Feisal Public Hospital where they were listed in fair condition.

AMMAN — The army said on Tuesday that 42 Syrian refugees entered Jordan in the previous 24 hours.

Border Guards transferred the new arrivals to shelters and camps, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Royal Medical Services personnel treated the injured.

AMMAN — King’s Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Tuesday met with UK Special Forces Director James Chiswell and an accompanying delegation, a Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army statement said.

At the meeting, attended by HRH Prince Feisal, discussions covered bilateral relations and military cooperation.

AMMAN — Southern Jordan Valley farmers on Tuesday destroyed dozens of tonnes of their tomato crops in protest against the lack of government intervention to curb their losses, according to a union leader.  

The farmers, who are witnessing their fifth season of losses due to the closure of the Syrian and Iraqi borders, demanded that the government compensate them for the losses of last season.

Jordan Valley Farmers Union President Adnan Khaddam estimated farmers' losses this season at JD2 million, adding that tomato crops were not sold at the central market over the past three days. 

Meanwhile, exporting produce to Gulf Arab countries does not solve the problem completely, given that they grow some vegetables and do not depend entirely on imports, said Zuhair Jweihan, president of the Jordan Exporters and Producers Association for Fruit and Vegetables.

He told The Jordan Times that local production of tomatoes currently exceeds 1,000 tonnes daily, while daily local consumption is around 400 tonnes.

This "overproduction" could be avoided through further diversification of produce, Jweihan said, but only if accompanied by a ban on imports as a measure to protect farmers.

He noted that farmers previously grew different varieties of beans, but the import of the same products made local products uncompetitive.

Khaddam told The Jordan Times that farmers do diversify their crops, but the prices of produce such as cauliflower, zucchini, cucumbers, aubergine and peppers have also decreased sharply.

Jweihan expected the problem to snowball in the coming days, since tomato crops in greenhouses in the northern Jordan Valley have yet to enter the market.

Commenting on the issue, Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin highlighted the need for farmers to further diversify their products and to allocate more land for onions and potatoes.

He told The Jordan Times that the weather conditions this season and the large areas of cultivated lands contributed to increasing the supply of crops.

Haddadin reiterated the ministry's efforts to facilitate exports and search for new markets, such as Russia, adding that border closures with Syria and Iraq are issues "beyond the ministry's ability to handle".

The official noted the Kingdom exports up to 600 tonnes of tomatoes to the Gulf Arab market every day.

In remarks to The Jordan Times earlier this week, Haddadin said Jordan's exports of fruit and vegetables to Gulf Arab countries have been increasing since the beginning of the year, with some 900 tonnes of produce exported daily.

AMMAN — “Unfamiliar” tourist sites around the Kingdom can be promoted as providing visual experiences and opportunities for interaction with local residents through new marketing campaigns, representatives from the tourism sector said on Tuesday.

In an article posted recently on Middle East social news website www.stepfeed.com, 14 tourist attractions around Jordan “that aren’t Petra, Amman, and the Dead Sea” were promoted.

The piece listed Dana Biosphere Reserve, Um Qais, Ajloun, Madaba, Jerash, Karak, Wadi Rum, Azraq Wetland Reserve, Aqaba, Tafileh, Wadi Mujib, Zarqa, Irbid and Salt as tourist destinations not currently receiving as much promotion.

Tohama Nabulsi, director of communications and media at the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), said the board promotes sites that are “ready” to receive tourists.

Um Qais is among the places that should be more promoted by tour operators, she said, but noted that some tour guides find it “distant”.

“It’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Um Qais [from Amman]. Many tour operators find Jerash and Ajloun, and Amman closer to more destinations.”

Nabulsi said tourists do not want to merely “see” sites: they want to experience them, especially through interacting with the residents of the area and seeing how they live.

“Recently, I asked some tourists about their best experience in Jordan. I assumed it would be Petra, but they said it was with Um Assad, a resident at one of the tourist sites. They visited her house and tried [traditional food].”

The official told The Jordan Times that promoting the ancient Nabataean city of Petra, some 235km south of Amman, as the most prominent site in the Kingdom should not be considered “wrong”.

“Promoting Petra as a destination is good since it is the crown jewel. You have to show your best when marketing something,” she added.

The rose-red city is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and has been inscribed into UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Nabulsi said the JTB launched a promotional campaign in different cities around the world that features a variety of tourist destinations in the Kingdom in order to emphasise that “Petra isn’t the only site to visit in Jordan”.

Dia Madani, the director of the Baptism Site Commission, said the promotion of additional sites requires specialists from different sub-sectors of tourism, such as religious and medical tourism. 

“To promote other places, we have to be ready to receive tourists,” Madani told The Jordan Times.

“Biblical sites in Jordan are promoted a lot, but we need a methodology to market and promote other sites,” he added.

But Shaher Hamdan, president of Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents, told The Jordan Times that the decline in tourist turnout for the past five years has caused tour operators to identify Jordan by its "major" sites. 

"We had to use the most known sites in the Kingdom to encourage tourists to visit," he added — "anything that would help the country get back in the tourism market".

Arwa Mahadeen, general manager of Tyche Tours, said the tours offered depend on the interests and demands of each tourist group.

“American groups tend to reserve tours for around eight days, whereas groups from other markets, such as the Far East, tend to stay for only two to three days,” she told The Jordan Times.

Mahadeen added that when a group stays for a short period of time, it becomes “less possible” for tour guides to show its members all of Jordan's sites, although the guides aim to extend the stay of each group as much as possible.

“When people come from the Far East, we can’t cover the whole country — only the main attractions, Petra, Amman and the Dead Sea.”

“I cannot take tourists to places that aren’t ready to receive them. They have to offer good service to visitors,” Mahadeen said.

She added when visitors come to Jordan, they often already know where to go, and tour guides “can’t just decide not to take them” to the desired sites. 

Tourism representatives noted that the Kingdom witnessed a decline in tourist visits over the past five years due to the instability in the region. 

For instance, Khaled Nawafleh, president of Petra Hotels Association, said in recent remarks to The Jordan Times that Petra received 380,000 tourists in 2014, compared to Sharm El Sheikh’s 100,000 visitors in one day that year.

AMMAN — Authorities dealt with 162 violations recorded on 300 dunums of forest lands across the country over the past three months, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

The registered violations on the forest lands were cultivations, quarries and building and they were removed under a national plan to restore forest lands, said Agriculture Minister Akef Zu'bi.

"A total of 1,982 violations on forest lands have been registered since 2002, when an agriculture law was drafted with penalties on those who allocate, designate, sell or barter forest lands," Zu'bi told reporters at a press conference to announce outcomes of the national plan.

The minister stressed that the plan is to remove all violations on terrains registered as forest lands, whether covered with forest trees or not, adding that he expects authorities to remove another 500 violations during the next six months.

Forestry lands amount to 1.5 million dunums, of which 250,000 dunums are bare, 400,000 dunums are natural forests, 500,000 dunums are planted forests and 350,000 are nature reserves, according to the ministry's figures.

The highest number of removed violations on forest lands was in Jerash Governorate, 48km north of the capital, where authorities removed 112 violations on 216 dunums. 

Ajloun Governorate, 70km northwest of Amman, followed with 24 violations on 33.4 dunums removed, according to the ministry's figures.

Zu'bi noted that consecutive governments have not made plans to address the issue of violations on forest lands, and the ministry's Forestry Department only carried out "conventional protection measures" in the past.

"The plan is being implemented with an unprecedented cooperation from the Interior Ministry, including district governors, the Public Security Department and the Gendarmerie Department. We are happy with its results," Zu'bi said.

AMMAN — The Lower House Education Committee on Tuesday held a meeting with deans of private community colleges to listen to their demands, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

MP Mohammad Al Haj, who chaired the meeting, said the deans presented the committee with a memorandum on the decisions of the Higher Education Accreditation Commission, which include stopping admission for academic and humanitarian majors like Sharia (Islamic Law), Arabic, English and child education because of the lack of job opportunities.

Haj said the deans asked the committee to call for reversing the decision for its “illegality” and because there is no logical reason for it, in addition to its negative repercussions. MP Ahmad Jaloudi, rapporteur of the committee, said a meeting will be held next week with Higher Education Minister Labib Khadra to discuss the decision.