Local

BAPTISM SITE — At a time when heritage is being destroyed in some countries around the world, local authorities are working to preserve historical sites in several areas of the Kingdom, officials said on Saturday. 

#Unite4Heritage is an ongoing UNESCO initiative supported by Jordanian institutions to protect holy and historical sites around the country. 

“These stones talk about a specific era — they are not silent… they are stones, but they reflect civilisations that we must preserve,” said Dia Madani, the director of the Baptism Site Commission.

He added that the region has been a place of coexistence throughout different historical periods.

“This is a land of tolerance, [years ago] churches were being built with mosques just a few kilometres away,” Madani told The Jordan Times during a tour of the Baptism Site, some 40km west of Amman, organised by UNESCO.

Many Christians, Muslims and Jews visit the site regularly to understand the era when religions originated, he said. 

Madani noted that tourism in Jordan witnessed a decline with the unrest in the region, but the way forward is to promote Jordan as a safe zone that holds religious and historical significance. 

“We are here to deliver the message of love, peace, coexistence and compassion to the whole world.”

Costanza Farina, UNESCO representative to Jordan, emphasised the importance of sending positive messages to counter aggressive attacks against cultural heritage sites that have taken place recently in Iraq and Syria. 

“Cultural heritage is part of the identity of people, and everybody has the duty and responsibility to protect that identity and to transmit it to future generations,” she told The Jordan Times. 

“The campaign will be a tool to promote interfaith dialogue. If we don’t manage to understand each other’s differences, the world will not be as it should be,” Farina added.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova launched the #Unite4Heritage campaign in Iraq on March 28. The campaign has since become global and was launched in Jordan in May.

French Ambassador to Jordan David Bertolotti told The Jordan Times it is very important to preserve common heritage and traditions for the future in the face of those who want to destroy the past.

“Christians and Muslims have lived side-by-side in mutual respect for centuries and those who destroy heritage do not represent this tradition of tolerance,” Bertolotti said.

Rustom Mkhjian, assistant director of the Baptism Site Commission, said people should see what is common between them and connect.

According to Mkhjian, October and April are the months during which tourists visit the site, also known as Bethany beyond the Jordan.

The site is the fifth in Jordan to be inscribed into UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

“After 2011, the number of visitors from Europe dropped… Daesh has a big role in the decline of visitors,” Mkhjian noted. “This is the lowest point on earth, yet, closest to heaven, for that we have to safeguard it.”

The site is where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist, according to Christian beliefs.

Marah Adass, a volunteer, said those who don’t know their past, cannot celebrate their present.

“Stories from different generations tell events of our history and enable us to celebrate our heritage,” the 22-year-old told The Jordan Times. 

Ahmad Jareer, who has been volunteering with UNESCO for three months, said such initiatives enrich his knowledge of history. 

“This is something we don’t learn in schools. There are some traditions I didn’t know about — customs and sites I didn’t know existed in the country,” Jareer added.

AMMAN — The core structure and requirements for establishing a national investment fund, which was recently proposed by His Majesty King Abdullah, were the highlight of a seminar that brought together officials and economists.

In his Speech from the Throne, delivered at the opening of the 17th Parliament’s third ordinary session last Sunday, King Abdullah called on the government to present draft legislation that stipulates the establishment of an investment fund.

“This fund should attract investments from banks, Arab sovereign wealth funds, private sector enterprises and individuals, targeting national developmental and pioneering projects that yield benefits to the national economy as well as those contributing to the fund,” His Majesty said.

Participants at a round-table discussion organised by Al Rai Centre for Studies last Thursday praised the idea of establishing such a fund to push the Kingdom’s development process forward.

However, they underscored that the fund should enjoy certain qualities in order to achieve its mission, namely independence and the ability to operate according to untraditional and new methods, contrary to other funds functioning in Jordan.

“The fund is supposed to focus on very huge ventures; therefore, managing it in a similar manner as other investment funds in Jordan simply will not work. It should be directed in an untraditional way and attract extraordinary expertise,” Jordan Investment Commission President Montaser Oklah said.

Economist Mufleh Aqel agreed, noting that the projected fund has to leverage its resources in order to succeed, and it should only include new and large industrial projects and profitable infrastructure ventures.

“All over the world, investment funds focus on very profitable large investments — not small- and medium-sized enterprises — and enjoy preferential tax treatment,” he said.

Amman Chamber of Industry Chairman Senator Ziad Homsi suggested exempting the fund from income tax, particularly during the first years of its work, and including it in the Investment Law.

Participants at the meeting agreed that the fund should operate with a capital of $200 million at least operate in order to create substantial added value for the country.

Omar Razzaz, chairman of Jordan Ahli Bank and the Jordan Strategy Forum, said countries have found their answer to funding gaps in sovereign investment funds, citing the independence of such facilities as the key behind their success.

“The role of the government in the projected investment fund should be in setting regulations,” he said.

The nature of the government’s role in the fund was an issue of controversy among speakers, with some saying that it should be supervisory through an advisory committee, while others argued that it should be fully independent from the government.

Central Bank of Jordan Deputy Governor Maher Sheikh Hassan underscored the need to look at other countries’ experience in managing investment funds.

“It is no secret that Gulf countries have been hesitant to invest in Jordan over the past few years. Even in their time of prosperity, they used to invest in real estate or be part of projects run by the government,” he said.

“This means that in order to attract new investments, we need to lean on new strategies. I suggest benefiting from Singapore and India’s experiences in this field,” Sheikh Hassan added.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury agreed, saying that the fund should be designed according to the trends and desires of investors.

“We cannot replicate sovereign funds like the ones in Sweden or the UAE, because they have the resources and their goals are different from ours. We have to look at funds like Temasek in Singapore, for instance,” he noted. 

The fund, the minister said, should invest using very large capital, for the type of investments it will be involved in are huge, such as railway projects and power generation from nuclear energy.

“Again, the fund should be independent from the government, but it should put the seed capital,” Fakhoury added.

He noted that the draft law will be presented to the Lower House as soon as possible to ensure that it would be operational by the start of next year.

For his part, economist Jawad Anani stressed the need for the government to have a role in the fund to give it a political obligation.

“The government should have a stakeholder role in the fund, not a governing one,” the senator said.

AMMAN — An “errant” missile from Syria landed on a house in the border city of Ramtha on Friday without harming anyone.

Irbid Governor Saad Shihab said the missile landed on an empty house and made a hole in its ceiling, with “minimal” damages to property.

The last missile to strike Ramtha, some 90km northwest of Amman and a few hundred metres away from the Jordanian-Syrian border, was around two months ago, Shihab told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

“Thank God no one was injured,” he said, adding that such incidents are not as frequent nowadays as they used to be over the past few years.

One person was killed and four were injured this June when a shell from the Syrian town of Daraa hit a house in Ramtha.

In August, six Ramtha residents, all from one family, were injured when a shell from Syria fell in the yard of their house.

The border crossing in Ramtha has been closed for nearly four years, and is currently only used to transport assistance to the war-torn country.

In addition to Ramtha, home to more than 100,000 residents and a large number of Syrian refugees, the northern villages of Amrawah, Shajarah and Turrah are adjacent to the southern Syrian towns of Tal Shihab, Zeizoun and Heet.

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury held a meeting with private sector representatives in the National Council for Competitiveness and Innovation to discuss procedures to quicken the pace of economic growth, the ministry said on Saturday. 

The meeting is “within the context of institutionalising public-private partnership and taking [the] private sector’s feedback and views into consideration in drawing economic policies”, the ministry statement said.

Fakhoury told attendees that the government, under the directives of the prime minister, formed a ministerial committee to draw up an executive plan that includes a package of incentives for the economy.

The committee is focusing on the latest incentive package issued by the Investment Council; the recommendations of the Jordan 2025 document; the recommendations of the nine technical committees stemming from the National Council for Competitiveness and Innovation; and the relevant national initiatives detailed in the executive development programme 2016-2018.

Fakhoury said the meeting aims at “enlarging the circle of consultations” with the private sector, and taking recommendations and proposals that can be promptly implemented to have a great economic impact, stimulate performance and improve the business and investment climate.

The minister said all suggestions by the private sector will be collected, drafted and submitted for discussion at the National Council for Competitiveness and Innovation to take the appropriate decisions regarding them. 

Private sector representatives praised the government’s steps and presented recommendations that they believe would motivate economic growth and improve the business and investment environment, the statement said.

The National Council for Competitiveness and Innovation consists of representatives of all economic sectors in Jordan.

The ministerial committee, chaired by Fakhoury, is due to convene on Sunday to discuss the government and private sector representatives’ recommendations, which will be submitted later to the prime minister for endorsement and implementation, according to the statement.

AMMAN — Marwa Hassan, a Syrian mother-of-two, made the difficult choice to send her children to Jordan last year after she was detained for three months by the Syrian regime, leading her to fear for their safety. 

“My husband passed away more than a year ago and I was forced to leave my home and head to Qunitrah. Later I was detained by the Syrian regime. To ensure the safety of my children, I decided to send them to Jordan,” she told The Jordan Times in a recent interview. 

Marwa’s children, Hussein and Lemar, left for Jordan in July 2014 under the care of her sister Nisreen. 

When Marwa was released in September 2014, she attempted to join her family in Jordan but failed several times, according to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson Hala Shamlawi. 

As Marwa was losing hope of ever seeing her children again, the ICRC managed to bring the family together as part of its efforts to reunite divided families.

“From July 2014 to April 2015, Nisreen was able to maintain contact with Marwa through the ICRC’s tracing office, which offers telephone calls to Syrian refugees in Azraq camp. The ICRC, meanwhile, was working around-the-clock trying to arrange a possible family reunification,” Shamlawi told The Jordan Times. 

The ICRC registered an intervention with the Jordanian authorities for Marwa’s entry to Jordan on family reunification grounds. 

“As Marwa reached Rweished in the northeastern border area, the ICRC handed her a family booklet, collected from her sister Nisreen in Azraq camp, so she would have all her documents ready and complete for the reunification,” the ICRC official added. 

Shamlawi said family reunification is one of the core activities of the ICRC worldwide. “Marwa was transferred from Rweished to the Ribaa Al Sarhan registration centre, and then to Azraq camp, where the reunion took place. At a later stage, she left the camp to reside in Abu Nseir in Amman,” she noted. 

Marwa recounted that when she was first reunited with her children, her son quickly ran to hug her, while her young daughter’s response was “cold”. 

“When my daughter went to Jordan, she was two years old, and now she is three... so she did not recognise me, whereas Hussein, who is now five years old, was happy to see me.”

The two sisters and their families are now supported by Nisreen’s 14-year-old son, who works at a nearby restaurant so that they can meet living expenses and the house rent of JD200 per month.

“My children are really attached to me now,” Marwa said. “Whenever I want to go to buy some groceries, they keep asking me: ‘Are you going to come back?’”

AMMAN — The steering committee for e-government programmes on Saturday launched eight e-services during a meeting at the ICT Ministry chaired by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Two of the services are by the Greater Amman Municipality, which are inquiring about traffic violations and paying for them as well as paying the property tax. Five services are for the Income and Sales Tax Department including paying monthly taxes for companies. One service was for the Justice Ministry, which is issuing a non-conviction certificate online.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation is currently preparing a separate development agenda for each governorate in partnership with civil society, development specialists and the private sector, according to a statement released Saturday.

This initiative is part of the ministry’s mandate to oversee implementation of development programmes in the governorates over the years 2016-2018 and will take into account each governorate’s competitive advantages, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury said in the statement.

In order to determine the development priorities and needs of each governorate, the ministry and USAID are conducting field visits, which will also help identify projects that USAID can contribute funding, the statement said.

AMMAN — Representatives of youth, popular and tribal movements held a march on Friday in support of Al Aqsa Mosque.

Participants at the rally, which started from Al Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman and ended at Al Nakheel Square, chanted slogans denouncing all Israeli violations and attacks against Palestinians, especially at Al Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic sites in Palestine.

They called for rallying efforts against Israel’s continued acts of aggression against the Palestinians, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — Justice Minister Bassam Talhouni has underlined the importance of unifying Arab action in the legal and judicial fields to fight terrorism, violence, money laundering and human trafficking.

During his participation in the meetings of the Arab justice ministers council, which concluded on Friday in Cairo, Talhouni called for achieving justice and security and supporting the rule of law, stressing the need to exchange legal expertise among Arab nations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

A ministry statement carried by Petra on Saturday, said Talhouni reviewed Jordan’s role in combating terrorism and extremist ideologies, stressing that the Kingdom is committed to international agreements related to combating terrorism.

AMMAN — The Youth Entrepreneurship Training Programme organised by the USAID Jordan Competitiveness Program (USAID JCP) and the King Abdullah II Fund for Development on Saturday honoured its second group of graduates, a USAID statement said.

The participants included students and graduates from five universities: the Jordan University of Science and Technology, German-Jordanian University, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Al al-Bayt University and the Hashemite University.

The training programme trained participants to be “successful entrepreneurs” by honing their abilities to assess the business environment, convert ideas into projects, and develop effective marketing plans, according to the statement.

“The training methodology was built based on practical case studies and examples so that participants gain a substantive understanding of entrepreneurship, competitiveness and innovation,” the statement quoted USAID JCP’s Chief of Party Wissam Rabadi as saying.