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AMMAN — Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury on Sunday discussed the Kingdom's needs and challenges resulting from the Syrian refugee crisis with Finnish Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka and an accompanying delegation, according to a ministry statement.

The 2015 Jordan Response Plan (JRP) was implemented in cooperation with the international community and UN organisations, Fakhoury said, adding that the plan cost $2.99 billion (approximately JD2.06 billion), of which only 35 per cent was funded. 

Fakhoury said the financial burden of hosting refugees increased the Kingdom's budget deficit and debt, as direct and indirect costs borne by the country since the beginning of the Syrian crisis stand at around $6.6 billion (approx. JD4.68 billion), excluding humanitarian aid intervention and supporting resilience and stability.

The minister stressed Jordan has not closed the borders or shut out any Syrian refugees since the influx started in 2011, reiterating that there are around 1.4 million Syrian refugees in the Kingdom, constituting 20 per cent of the population. 

He added that the problem is not the refugee crisis per se, but stability and national resilience, in addition to turbulence in the region, whose impact, he said, has reached Europe. 

The international community has not committed to the responsibilities it is supposed to shoulder, the planning minister said, adding that this has resulted in delays in the development process.

Jordan is committed to its reform plan through the Jordan 2025 economic blueprint, its executive development programme for the years 2016-2018, and its sustainable development goals, Fakhoury said.

He highlighted Jordan’s pivotal role in achieving security and stability in the region and how the nation is the world’s first line of defence in the war against terrorism.

Fakhoury briefed Toivakka on the country’s preparation for projects to be conducted in the coming period in the form of public-private partnerships  in the sectors of infrastructure, transport, renewable energy and water. 

He also briefed the official on the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project and its importance, emphasising the need to protect the Dead Sea in regard to its environment, tourism, economy and culture. The Finnish side voiced “strong support” for the “vital” project, according to the statement. 

Toivakka commended Jordan’s role, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah, in bearing the burden of hosting refugees and stressed the importance of supporting the Kingdom, commending the comprehensive political and economic reform march that Jordan is currently implementing. 

She said the Finnish government will increase official development aid to Jordan in order to enable the nation to continue serving Syrian refugees.

AMMAN – The Turaibil/Karameh border crossing between Jordan and Iraq is expected to reopen for both cargo and passengers in the near future, immediately after the completion of renovation work for the centre on the Iraqi side, a government official said Sunday. 

The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Jordan Times that the Iraqi government recently decided to reopen the crossing as it is now safer for truckers and passengers to travel between the two countries than it was some three months ago, when authorities in Baghdad decided to close the crossing due to fighting with extremists in Anbar province. 

“Our side is ready to resume operations as it remained open,” said the official, explaining that Iraqi authorities are renovating buildings and infrastructure inside Turaibil because some of the facilities had been damaged during fighting with militant groups. 

Transport and cargo movement is expected to resume within the coming weeks, said the official, who added that Iraq is an important market for Jordanian manufacturers and farmers. 

Iraq is Jordan’s largest market, with around 20 per cent of the nation’s JD6 billion volume of exports going to the eastern neighbour, President of the Jordan Chamber of Industry Ayman Hatahet, has said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times. 

Since the closure of the border, Jordanian exports to Iraq have come to a complete halt, except for some limited goods that have a long life-span.  Some industrialists ship their products through Kuwait.

Hatahet has said that several industries were established in Jordan just for the Iraqi market such as food processing, detergents and wood.

Amman — Didier Burkhalter, Swiss federal councillor, will travel to the Kingdom on Monday to take part in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mediterranean Conference and meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh.

Burkhalter, who is the head of the Swiss federal department of foreign affairs, will visit the Azraq Refugee Camp as well as the An Nahdah School in Amman supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), a statement released by the Swiss embassy said.

In his meeting with Judeh, which will occur on the margins of the conference titled "Common security in the Mediterranean region — challenges and opportunities", Burkhalter will discuss bilateral relations between the two nations, focusing on regional developments and the Syrian crisis. 

The SDC has been aiming to improve infrastructure, strengthen capacities and enhance learning environments of schools that have taken in Syrian refugee children. At the An Nahdah School, which the SDC is renovating, repairing sanitary facilities and electrical installations and improving security, one in five pupils are from Syria. 

Burkhalter will sign a letter of intent with UNICEF, pledging SDC support measures to ensure water supply, during his visit to Azraq. He will also meet with representatives of UN agencies such as UNHCR and UNRWA, as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the Swiss statement. 

Azraq is currently Jordan's second largest refugee camp, housing some 24,000 refugees. To date, Switzerland has allocated 200 million Swiss francs (approximately $210 million) to the region affected by the Syrian crisis. In September, a further 70 million Swiss francs (approx. $73 million) was extended to the Syrian region and the Horn of Africa, the statement said. 

According to the statement, the Swiss federal council concluded that the gravity of the current Syrian crisis and its consequences for migration makes additional urgent efforts necessary. It also called on the international community to increase humanitarian aid. 

“The Swiss finance delegation of the parliament also recognised the urgent need for the allocation of funds, approving the decision on Friday,” the embassy said.

According to a statement posted by the OSCE on its website, this year’s OSCE Mediterranean Conference will be held on the shores of the Dead Sea October 20-21. 

The conference will focus on “Common security in the Mediterranean region — challenges and opportunities”. 

AMMAN — Festive firing in the southern Governorate of Karak has killed four people and injured 64 over the past five years, at an average of 13 injuries every year, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) official.

First Lt. Louai Majali, head of media and public relations at Karak police, said 197 firearms have been seized in the governorate, some 140km south of Amman, during the same period, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday.

Majali was speaking at a ceremony in Karak’s Qasr District on Saturday, where popular and youth movements signed an honour pact to put a stop to the phenomenon of celebratory gunfire.

Majali said the document is within the PSD’s “Don’t Kill with Your Happiness” initiative.

Signatories commit to not firing guns at weddings and social events and to boycotting any event where festive firing occurs, according to Petra.

They also agreed to report those who carry firearms at social occasions to the authorities.

Following the injury of a six-year-old girl, the PSD’s radio station, Amen FM launched the initiative “Don’t Kill with Your Happiness,” with the aim of highlighting the negative consequences of festive firing.

The campaign intensified following the shooting death of another child in an incident that was captured on a mobile and went viral in cyberspace.

In August, the PSD announced stiff measures against violators, including locking up any groom whose wedding includes festive shooting.

The PSD pledged to conduct campaigns in various governorates and arrest any person who owns a gun without a licence and/or arrest people who fire weapons on any occasion, and individuals who sell weapons and ammunition for this purpose.

According to official figures released last October, three people were killed and 41 injured by festive firing in 2014.

At least 21 cases were registered last year against anonymous assailants, where shooters could not be identified, according to the PSD.

Earlier this month, the Cabinet announced proposed changes to the draft weapons and ammunition law, under which individuals will be banned from possessing automatic weapons and all relevant licences in this regard will be considered null and void.

As stipulated in the new amendments, natural and juridical persons can obtain licences for pistols, but automatic weapons will be limited to security companies and private guards.

The draft law also lists penalties of imprisonment and temporary hard labour between three months and three years or a JD1,000 fine or both penalties against everyone convicted of practising festive firing, in addition to confiscating the weapon used.

New articles were added to the draft law that completely ban carrying, selling, purchasing, possessing or importing any hunting rifles (pump-action or automatic) which use ammunition clips that can accommodate more than one bullet.

DEAD SEA — The influx of Syrian refugees into the Kingdom over the past few years has caused a “significant” drop in piped water and sanitation coverage rates, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said Sunday.

Speaking at the Water and Development Congress and Exhibition 2015, Nasser explained that over 93 per cent of the Kingdom was covered by piped water services in 2012 and that sanitation services covered 70 per cent of the country.

However, the influx of some 1.4 million Syrians to Jordan since then decreased the coverage of piped water to 67 per cent and sanitation coverage to only 42 per cent by 2013, the minister said.

The per capita water share in Jordan, which reached 130 cubic metres per year in 2011, is among the lowest in the world, according to Nasser, who cited predictions for water allocations per capita to drop further to 90 cubic metres per year by 2025.

He highlighted the need for international assistance to meet the “critical” needs of host communities as well as the refugees, especially when it comes to rehabilitation of infrastructure, as the impacts of climate change are already clear in the Kingdom, with water scarcity being the most acute effect.

Nasser cited the ministry’s reform measures to enhance accountability and good governance of water resources as a major factor for the continuity of providing water.    

Under the theme “Water Security for Sustainable Growth”, the four-day congress is a platform that brings together scientists, researchers, policy makers, the public and private sectors, and financial institutions from all over the world to generate water cooperation and internationally applicable water solutions.

Carried out by the International Water Association (IWA), the congress features the West Asia and North Africa Water Summit.

Water is crucial for societal development and sustainable economic growth, according to IWA Executive Director Ger Bergkamp. 

He highlighted an “enormous potential” to address these challenges by implementing available solutions and best practices, in addition to scientific innovation and technologies.

Bergkamp said Jordan is one of the world’s most water scarce countries, adding that the climate change impact currently felt in Jordan will face other countries around the world.

AMMAN — “Things are changing in the blink of an eye” for tech start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with the sector achieving “crazy momentum”, Sharif El Badawi, partner lead to venture capital and start-ups at Google, said Sunday.

He highlighted improvements in funding for start-ups, with 12 new MENA-focused venture capital funds with over $50 million established in 2015 alone, and in the number of well-publicised investments in regional companies by global players.

“What’s going to drive investment are innovations and technology that are born here but have a global audience,” he added.

Badawi made his remarks at a two-day TechWadi conference in Amman, which began on Sunday. The first day consisted of talks by representatives of tech giants such as Google and Facebook, while the second offers mentoring sessions to 60 Jordanian entrepreneurs. 

TechWadi, a nonprofit organisation linking MENA entrepreneurs with Arab-Americans in the US tech industry, selected Amman as one of four host cities for its first Middle East roadshow, which is supported by Google for Entrepreneurs. The other events are in Beirut, Cairo and Dubai.

Badawi told The Jordan Times that he supported Amman’s selection after being impressed by “the level of technology and knowledge and global thinking” in the capital during a visit earlier this year, as well as by the tenacity and efficiency he found in Jordanian entrepreneurs.

“It’s something that we actually struggle with in Silicon Valley — to get entrepreneurs to go back to scrappy roots,” he added.

Jordan has “a great, closely knit start-up ecosystem… like a big village,” agreed Emile Cubeisy, managing partner at Silicon Badia, which runs venture capital funds investing in the Middle East and the US.

However, he pointed out that the fragmentation of the MENA market is a difficulty for tech companies in the region, asserting that it is easier for employees to get a visa to the US than to Saudi Arabia.

Ahmad Al Hanandeh, CEO of Zain Jordan, whose Innovation Campus hosted the event, saw Singapore as a model for the Kingdom, going from a minor economic player 40 years ago to achieving the No. 1 place in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 ICT ranking.

Jordan ranked 52nd, behind all Gulf Arab countries except Kuwait, but ahead of the rest of the MENA region.

Badawi also voiced hope that technology would be a broader force for change in the region.

“I’m from an Egyptian background and I see a lot of despair in the region about the Arab Spring, but entrepreneurs just go on building their products,” he said. “When governments don’t feel like they can change their own countries, they rely on founders and entrepreneurs to do it.”

TechWadi is encouraging start-ups to apply to its 2016 accelerator programme, which brings MENA companies with global business plans to California to pitch to US partners and investors.

AMMAN — The Goodwill Campaign, implemented by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, and the Foodstuff Traders Association have recently signed a memorandum to facilitate cooperation between in the different areas of social responsibility, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The association will support the campaign’s food support programme and will promote the different products of women’s committees at Princess Basma centres, in accordance with the three-year cooperation agreement.

AMMAN — Citizens and residents of the Kingdom are obligated, under the law, to provide all required information to the national census’ employees, and if they do not, legal action will be taken, Department of Statistics (DoS) Director Qasem Zu’bi said Sunday.

The new population census provides detailed information related to geographic and administrative units necessary for decision makers, Zu’bi told the Jordan News Agency, Petra. The census will cost around JD26 million, he said.

AMMAN — Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Managing Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat on Sunday stressed the importance of advertising campaigns specialised in promoting religious, adventure and convention tourism sectors for their contributions to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product.

To promote Christian religious tourism, JTB is scheduled in November to host 100 families from across the world to baptise their children at the Baptism Site, Arabiyat told the Jordan News Agency, Petra. In November, the JTB, in cooperation with its representation office in Germany, will support the scuba diving festival in Aqaba, he said.

AMMAN — The 2015 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mediterranean Conference is scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Dead Sea, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Representatives of 57 countries from the OSCE and six countries from the Mediterranean will participate in the conference, in addition to several other international organisations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday.

The conference aims at discussing security opportunities and challenges in the Mediterranean region. The 2015 OSCE Mediterranean Conference sessions, including the opening session, will be broadcast live on www.osce.org/live.