Local

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah is scheduled to begin a work visit on Monday in Washington, according to a Royal Court statement released on Sunday. 

During the visit, the King is scheduled to meet with US administration staff to discuss bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership, in addition to current regional and international developments. 

Moreover, the Monarch is scheduled to meet with leaders and heads of committees in Congress and representatives of Arab and Islamic American organisations. 

According to the Royal Court, the war against terrorism, the Palestinian issue and the refugee burden on Jordan will be the major topics of discussion between the King and the US officials and lawmakers. 

With military assistance, US economic support to Jordan for this year is around $1 billion.

USAID is Jordan's number one donor in various development fields that include water, environment, education, energy and youth, among other sectors.

AMMAN — Remittances of Jordanian expatriates stood at $3.8 billion in the year 2015, according to a World Bank report.

“Migration and Remittances Factbook” for the year 2016, which was developed by the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, listed Jordan fourth in the region in terms of the volume of remittances in 2015.

Egypt ranked first ($20.4 billion), Lebanon followed ($7.5 billion) and Morocco came third ($6.7 billion).

President of the Jordanian Exchange Association Alaa Eddine Diraniyeh told The Jordan Times that cash transfers by Jordanians come mostly from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

He added that there are transfers from the US and Europe but the amount is not comparable to that from the Gulf. However, he noted that there has been a notable rise in the amount of transfers in 2015 compared to the year before.

Last year, remittances reached over $3.66 billion (JD2.6 billion).  

According to the World Bank Factbook of 2015, worldwide remittance flows are estimated to have exceeded $601 billion. Of that amount, developing countries are estimated to receive about $441 billion, nearly three times the amount of official development assistance. 

The actual size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be significantly larger, it added.

 In 2015, the top recipient countries of recorded remittances were India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and France. 

High-income countries are the main source of remittances, the report stated, adding that the US is by far the largest source country, with an estimated $56.3 billion in recorded outflows in 2014. Saudi Arabia ranks the second largest, followed by the Russia, Switzerland, Germany, the UAE and Kuwait. 

The six GCC countries accounted for $98 billion in outward remittance flows in 2014.

The Factbook also tackled the issue of migration, indicating that the top migrant destination country is the US, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, the Russian Federation, the UAE, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain and Australia. 

The top six immigration countries, relative to population, are outside the high-income OECD countries and all are Arab countries: Qatar (91 per cent), the UAE (88 per cent), Kuwait (72 per cent), Jordan (56 per cent) and Bahrain (54 per cent).

Excluding refugees from the West Bank and Gaza, the number of refugees in 2014 was 14.4 million, or 6 per cent of international migrants in 2013. About 86 per cent of refugees are hosted by developing countries. Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Chad and Uganda are the largest host countries.

AMMAN — Inflation in 2015 edged down by 0.9 per cent, compared to 2014, the Department of Statistics (DoS) announced on Sunday.

Main item groups that contributed to the drop were transportation (14.2 per cent), fuel and lighting (13.3 per cent), beverages (1.5 per cent) and personal objects (3.5 per cent), according to a DoS report e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

An increase in prices during the year was witnessed in rents (4.9 per cent), fruit and nuts (4.8 per cent), tobacco and cigarettes (3.5 per cent), and education (3.1 per cent).

The DoS report highlighted that average consumer prices in December 2015 went down by 1.6 per cent, compared to the same month of 2014.

On a monthly basis, average consumer prices in December 2015 increased by 0.1 per cent compared to the previous month.

DoS started calculating the inflation rate considering 2010 a base year, instead of 2006, starting from January 2015 to conform to international classifications and approaches.

AMMAN — The Kingdom's green cover increased by 15,000 dunums over the past three years, while violations on the country's forests dropped by more than half during the same period, according to the Forestry Department.

Ongoing projects to plant more trees coupled with intensified monitoring of forests to prevent illegal logging contributed to the increase in the country's green cover, Eid Zu'bi, director of the Agriculture Ministry's Forestry Department, said on Sunday.

"Between 2013 and 2015, forest trees were planted on 15,000 dunums. And this year, there are plans to plant trees on another 4,000-5,000 dunums," Zu'bi told The Jordan Times.

To mark Arbour Day, celebrated annually on January 15, the ministry will plant 25,000 saplings across the Kingdom starting Thursday to further expand Jordan’s forests, he added.

"On Thursday alone, some 500 dunums of bare lands will be planted with thousands of saplings. The main celebration will take place in Karak Governorate," Zu'bi noted.

In addition, the ministry has plans to have 12,000 dunums covered with trees in Karak's Sneiniyeh area by next year, according to the official.

"Under a separate initiative, trees were planted on some 8,000 dunums of land in Karak over the past three years. The project is scheduled to end by next year, when 12,000 dunums should be covered with different forest trees," Eid highlighted.

During this time every year, the ministry’s forestry department plants saplings on hundreds of dunums to expand the Kingdom’s green cover.

The forestry department’s 14 nurseries across the country, which produce 3 million saplings of more than 80 different kinds every year, will provide the trees, according to the ministry.

The department annually distributes over 1.5 million saplings to the public free of charge, in addition to some 500,000 saplings to public and private institutions. Another 1 million saplings are left at the nurseries to produce more, according to the ministry.

The tradition of Arbour Day in the Kingdom began in 1939 with a ceremony held in the Jabal Al Qalaa neighbourhood.

Since then, it has been an annual celebration, with the Agriculture Ministry choosing a different location each year to plant various saplings.

Illegal logging during winter, wildfires in summer and insufficient rain due to climate change are the main threats to Jordan’s shrinking green cover, which stands at less than 1 per cent of the country’s total landscape, according to experts.

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, the ministry has said.

Jordan is among the poorest countries worldwide in terms of green cover, with the internationally accepted average of land covered by forests at 15 per cent of the total area.

AMMAN — If it were not for the Karak Creativity Club, Salma Habashneh said her life would have been "far less productive and not as interesting".

"Joining the club was the most important transformational point in my life," added Habashneh, who became a club member when it first opened in 2010.

The third-year civil engineering student first became involved in the club in order to pursue her passion for art and drawing, but it also inspired her to explore other fields, such as robotics and life skills. 

Now she is certified by the club to deliver training sessions in life skills to other students between 15 and 24 years of age in Karak Governorate, some 140km south of Amman.

Habashneh told The Jordan Times over the phone that the club was the place where she honed her skills, boosted her self-esteem and encountered new experiences.

One of these experiences was representing Jordan at the MEPI Student Leaders Programme — a series of workshops on leadership and project management skills, organised by the US government — which took place at Georgetown University last summer.

"It was a great opportunity for me to build on what I learnt in the courses the club offered me". 

Habashneh said the experience inspired her to start her own initiatives to boost the skills of girls and educate orphans in Karak.    

Hamzah Asasfeh, another certified trainer for fellow club members, said he was simply looking for entertainment when he joined in 2010 at the age of 14, but enrolling in robotics courses there and abroad directed him towards a new course of study. "I had always wanted to study medicine, but as the years passed, I realised that robotics was my passion. Therefore, I am currently a student of mechanical engineering," he told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Asasfeh described the creativity club as a "second home and a second family".

More than 4,000 students have benefited from the club since its establishment, according to Hussam Tarawneh, its founder and director.

"Young Jordanians have a great potential, and all they need is a suitable environment that incubates and nurtures their abilities from an early age," he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

The club adopts a "non-traditional" method for encouraging creativity, as it does not take into account students' academic record, intelligence level or performance in personal interviews.

"We engage all of those wishing to participate in a training programme that filters really creative individuals through natural selection," Tarawneh said, noting that the club has unleashed undiscovered skills in several cases.   

The club, which offers all its programmes at no charge, connects its students with mentors and experts in various fields, funds their projects and engages them in regional and international contests and conferences. 

"As the majority of the students come from simple backgrounds, we make sure to equip them with the necessary communication and interpersonal skills," he said, explaining that the club's life skills courses cover public speaking and time management skills.

The facility currently offers 34 "comprehensive" programmes in all fields of arts and science targeting four age groups: 5 to 11 years, 12 to 17, 18 to 22 and over 22, with courses addressing the needs of each segment.

"Programmes for graduates seek to increase their ability to compete for jobs in the private sector, which employs 70 per cent of graduates," Tarawneh said. 

Students at the club have so far won 18 awards at the national, regional and international levels, including through Intel and UCMAS, according to him.

Despite the achievements of the club, it faces social and financial challenges.

"Some parents and members of the community do not see the importance of supporting creative young people," Tarawneh said, adding that future plans need participation of parents in training sessions. 

Through local and international partnerships and connections, the club has been able to secure JD100,000 in annual funding to cover all expenses, the director said, calling on the local private sector to further invest in creative Jordanians.

"We aspire to establish a more specialised academy that graduates trainers and teachers able to encourage creative minds," he said, and the goal is to have branches in all governorates.

Tarawneh underscored the role of promoting creativity in combating extremism, as it results in "enlightened, self-confident citizens who respect the other, appreciate the arts, reject violence and fill their free time with constructive activities".

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to a 20-year prison term for murdering his father-in-law in Irbid in August 2013.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of stabbing his father-in-law to death following an argument on August 31.

Court papers said the defendant had a fight with his wife a few days before the incident, and she returned to her family's home.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained, the defendant headed to his in-laws' house to bring his wife back home.

"An argument ensued and the defendant and his father-in-law came to blows. The defendant then pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim once in the chest," the court verdict said.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared dead on arrival, according to the court.

The defendant's attorney contested the verdict claiming that the "Criminal Court refused to refer his client to a hospital for mental evaluation and disregarded a witness who was present during the incident, and testified that he was not sure who stabbed the victim, the court documents said. 

However, the Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures and the punishment was appropriate.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mahmoud Ababneh, Basel Abu Anzeh, Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh and Bassem Mubeidin.

AMMAN — The authorities confiscated around 40,000 pirated items in 2015, including books, CDs and DVDs, of which around 2-3 per cent were porn movie DVDs, according to the National Library Department (NLD).

The number of pirated items confiscated last year is lower than 2014, when the figure stood at 48,000, NLD Director General Mohammad Abbadi said.

"There is a decline in the cases reported to courts as the number of stores selling such items has been dropping," Abbadi told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

In 2015, the department referred some 360 cases of intellectual property right violations to court compared with 460 cases in 2014.

"More than 15 stores selling pirated items went out of business in 2014 as the number of people who access movies, songs and games online is on the rise, which is largely due to smartphone penetration in Jordan that exceeds 70 per cent," he said.

Around 4,000 stores in the country sell pirated items, according to Abbadi, and the number will continue to decrease in the next few years as more people are using their devices to access "anything they want".

He said 2015 witnessed a 25 per cent rise in sales of pirated books compared to 2014, which he attributed to an increase in the number of books being published in Jordan. 

"Many writers from the Arab world started to come to Jordan to publish their books due to the regional situation, and Jordan is the leading publishing destination at present."

Abbadi noted that the NLD will continue to crack down on sales of pirated items in 2016 with a focus on those selling pirated books.

The Jordanian Copyright Law stipulates that it is a crime to download software, music or movies that are protected under the legislation. Offenders face a prison sentence of between three months and three years and a fine ranging from JD1, 000 to JD6, 000. 

AMMAN – Engineers and municipality officials on Sunday urged the public not to panic over news of six retaining walls collapsing at construction sites in the capital.

Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) Spokesperson Izz Eddein Shammout called on media outlets not to describe the collapses as a “phenomenon”.  

“When you encounter six incidents that are not serious out of 2,000 construction projects in Amman this year, you cannot call it a phenomenon,” Shammout told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The GAM official said Amman has four kinds of soil and three of them absorb rainfall. 

“In winter, some contractors start implementing their building projects when there is no rain. Later, when rain falls, the soil absorbs water and places pressures on the retaining walls around the construction site, causing cracks or collapses,” he explained. 

“At the same time, we cannot ban people from building during winter, which has been marked by heavy rainfall this season.”

The municipality official said it is permitted to dig a basement to use for services, not for commercial or residential purposes, but the drilling could also lead to cracks.

“When workers start digging near an old building, its foundations are exposed leading to collapses and fissures. The contractor or the owner pledges to compensate neighbours if the construction work damages their building,” Shammout explained. 

Sari Zuaiter, a member of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) council and the head of civil engineering division at the syndicate, said GAM must monitor construction sites to ensure that the work is in accordance with regulations. 

Contractors submit blueprints and work plans that meet all the conditions but do not implement them, Zuaiter said, stressing that the JEA cannot monitor construction work day-to-day all around Amman.

He noted that some projects start before the plans are approved, citing the Abdullah Ghosheh Street incident as an example. 

Drilling at the construction site of a commercial complex caused a crack in the vital Amman street, according to GAM, which sent an official letter to the owner of the site, including engineering reports on the method and duration needed to fix the fissure.

Raed Haddadin, director of the building control department at GAM, said in previous remarks that road closures are around 150 metres long, with the damage estimated to extend for around 80 metres.

Shammout noted that a committee comprising JEA and GAM representatives visits locations that witness similar incidents, and submits recommendations to the governor. 

But Zuaiter said the committee is sometimes unable to cover all ongoing projects or “breaches happen” within it. 

Meanwhile, Abdullah Ghosheh Street is expected to be fully open to traffic by the end of this week, Shammout said.

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) on Sunday organised a dialogue session with retirees to listen to their views on its services, and suggestions to help improve them.

The SSC looks to present good services to its subscribers and is keen on providing quality services, SSC Director General Nadia Rawabdeh said at the session, held in coordination with the Jordanian Society for Social Security Retirees (JSSSR).

“Retirees are part of the SSC after they were subscribers under the institutions they used to work for, and following retirement, they are the responsibility of the corporation, which has to offer them the services they expect”, Rawabdeh stressed.

JSSSR President Mohammad Arabiat asked about the time needed to complete a retirement transaction, and why the SSC requires a quittance from subscribers about to retire to prove they have settled their financial affairs with their employer.

“Requesting a certificate of quittance from retirees would force them to sacrifice some privileges, as some employers only issue these documents if the retiring employee gives up certain financial rights,” Arabiat noted.

But Rawabdeh explained that the SSC does not require certificates of quittance; rather, it requires an end of service letter from the employer to ensure the retirement applicant is no longer an employee.

She said retirement transactions that contain all the required documents usually take a week, while some transactions can face delays.

Mohammad Awamleh, a retiree and member of the JSSSR, urged the SSC to activate health insurance for retirees as stipulated in Paragraph A of Article 3 in the Social Security Law, and also to raise the minimum rate of pensions to cope with inflation.

The corporation is currently studying the issue of activating health insurance for retirees with the International Labour Organisation, the SSC director said, noting that initial indicators show a good number of potential subscribers.

“The SSC aspires to activate this insurance and has a suggestion for the Health Ministry and Royal Medical Services to join so as to be able to provide the service in a more comprehensive manner,” she highlighted.

Rawabdeh noted that taking inflation into account when it comes to pensions requires legislative amendments, expressing the corporation’s readiness to tackle the subject in the future.

Other retirees at the meeting called on the SSC to offer housing projects, loan facilities and service cards, with SSC officials promising to consider their demands with the relevant parties.

AMMAN — The Lower House Financial Committee on Sunday presented its notes on the 2016 draft budget law to the Chamber of Deputies, recommending that the bill be only passed if the government provides a clear response to its proposals.

Reading the panel’s detailed report, MP Rudaina Ati (Zarqa) said the government should allocate an “emergency fund” to cover the needs of the army and other security services.

She also requested that the government embark on talks with creditor countries to cancel part of Jordan’s debts to compensate for the high costs it is paying as a result of hosting large numbers of refugees.

As recommended by the committee, Ati requested that the government submits to the House an executive plan for debt repayment, revenue collection and reduction of the National Electric Power Company’s losses. 

Raising the pensions of civil and military retirees and linking them to inflation rates, was another recommendation of the Financial Committee, which requested amendments to the Income Tax Law to address the imbalances that emerged in applying the new law.

The panel also urged the government to use solar energy in all government buildings following the example of the Royal Court, which established a solar power plant with a 5.6-megawatt capacity at its premises in May last year. In addition, the committee called on the government to stop extending civil servants’ service or rehiring senior retired officials on a contract basis, as this affects the promotion and progress of younger employees. The panel also underlined the need to attract more investments by simplifying bureaucratic measures, improving the business environment and accelerating the launch of the sovereign investment fund.

A government panel is currently drafting a law for the projected fund, which His Majesty King Abdullah called for establishing in his Speech from the Throne last November.

The panel urged the government to implement the governorate development project with complete justice and transparency this year through an executive plan that needs to be examined by MPs.  

On Monday, the House is scheduled to begin deliberations on the draft 2016 general budget law and the bill governing the budget of independent government units, which the government submitted on December 6, 2015.Public spending for 2016 was put at JD8.496 billion in draft budget law, with a projected deficit of 3.1 per cent of the gross domestic product, while the growth projection is estimated at 3.7 per cent and inflation at 3.1 per cent.