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AMMAN — The government on Monday announced the prices of main oil derivatives for April, with no changes to last month›s prices.

Under a decision taken by the government’s pricing committee, effective April 1, one litre of unleaded 90-octane gasoline will continue to be sold at JD0.835, and one litre of 95-octane at JD1.015.

Prices of both diesel and kerosene are JD0.670 per litre, down from JD0.680 in March, according to the price list announced by Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Hatem Halawani.

The price of cooking gas remains unchanged at JD10 per cylinder.

AMMAN — The World Food Programme (WFP) will provide support for underprivileged families in Irbid and Mafraq, which are hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees, under an agreement signed Monday with the National Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition (Najmah).

Najmah also signed a deal with the Vocational Training Corporation to provide training for 439 young residents of both governorates.

At the signing ceremony, HRH Princess Basma, president of Najmah, said the alliance staff is looking forward to achieving positive results through programmes aimed at honing the skills of young people.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday sent cables to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani congratulating them on the anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic republic of Iran.

The King extended his best wishes to the Iranian leaders and the people of Iran.

AMMAN — Water Minister Hazem Nasser and US Ambassador to Jordan Stuart Jones on Monday witnessed the launch of construction on the $93 million Water Network Project, funded by the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The project will help transform Zarqa Governorate’s water network by laying approximately 800 kilometres of new pipes that will reduce water leakage, according to a MCC statement.

The funding is part of MCC’s $275 million grant to help reduce poverty through economic growth by implementing development projects, which are managed through the Millennium Challenge Account-Jordan, a company established and owned by the government to manage the grant.

AMMAN — Jordan’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.8 per cent in 2013, according to Department of Statistics (DoS).

Last year’s growth rate was slightly higher than 2012, when the economy expanded by 2.7 per cent.

According to a report released on Monday by DoS, the Kingdom’s GDP grew by only 2.9 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2013, while it was 2.2 per cent in the same time span in 2012. 

DoS also said that most sectors recorded growth. The construction sector witnessed the highest increase, amounting to 9.4 per cent, last year. Public services providers came second with 5.4 per cent, then the social and personal services sector with 5.1 per cent, while in the fourth rank came the private non-profit services producers sector with a growth percentage of 5 per cent. 

Agriculture and extractive industries sectors showed negative growth in the fourth quarter of last year by 13.3 and 12.2 per cent, respectively, compared to the same quarter in 2012. 

AMMAN — The liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Aqaba will give a boost to Jordan's energy sector, a senior official said Monday.

Work on the $65 million terminal is going as planned, and it is expected to be ready during the first quarter of 2015, Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said at a meeting held by the EDAMA Association under the theme “The Role of Gas in Securing a Sustainable Energy Mix for Jordan".

"The terminal will give independence to the Kingdom in the energy field," he added.

The project will enable Jordan to meet its needs of natural gas for power generation after the halt in natural gas supplies from Egypt since July 2013 following a series of attacks against the Arab Gas Pipeline in Sinai, according to the minister.

"Although importing LNG is more expensive than the natural gas that we used to get from Egypt, LNG remains 30-35 per cent less expensive than diesel and heavy fuel, which we currently use for power generation after the cut in Egyptian gas," Hamed said.

The minister told The Jordan Times that Shell won a tender to supply the terminal with LNG. The Cabinet is expected to approve the agreement with the company in a few days after which the ministry will sign the agreement with Shell.

Describing the terminal as a strategic project, Mounir Bouaziz, Royal Dutch Shell VP for the commercial region of the Middle East and North Africa, said it will reduce the government's energy spending by about $500 million annually.

"The terminal is a strategic infrastructure in the gas field," he said, noting that demand on gas is expected to double globally and it will also surge significantly in the Middle East.

By 2025, the Middle East is expected to be the second largest market for consumption of gas after Asia, Bouaziz added.

Estimates by the International Energy Agency indicate that there is sufficient natural gas to meet the world's needs for the next 200 years, he noted. 

In a speech at Monday's event, EDAMA Association CEO Hala Zawati highlighted several projects that Jordan is implementing in the field of renewable energy and gas.

Noting that the Kingdom will be one of the first countries in the region to generate power from renewable energy, she said the country's grid is expected to be supplied with power generated from renewable energy plants in less than 18 months.

EDAMA — Arabic for sustainability — is a local business association that seeks “innovative solutions for energy and water independence and productivity”, according to its website.

AMMAN — The Labour Ministry fined and issued warnings to 74 institutions in March for employing children, a government official said Monday.

An inspection campaign to detect child labour cases at restaurants and coffee-on-the-go shops showed that 294 institutions hire children, which is a violation of the Labour Law.

“The campaign, which covered the country’s governorates, also found that 92 children work at restaurants and cafeterias that sell coffee on the street. Forty-three of the working children are Jordanians and 49 are foreigners,” Ayman Khawaldeh, director of the inspection department at the Ministry of Labour, said.

Legal measures were taken against coffee vendors and restaurants hiring children, Khawaldeh added, noting that the department’s inspectors provided 18 institutions with guidance, while 56 were issued warnings and others were fined.

He highlighted that the ministry will carry on with inspections to end child labour, noting that children belong in schools, not the labour market.

The problem of child labour has increased over the past two years due to the Syrian crisis and its impact on the national economy, Labour Ministry Secretary General Hamadah Abu Nejmeh said recently, underscoring that there is a real problem regarding the actual number of working children and the sectors where child labour is most common.

Official figures put the number of working children in the Kingdom at around 30,000. According to the law, the minimum age for regular work is 16, and 18 for hazardous work, which the Labour Ministry defined in 1997 as dangerous, tiring or harmful to the health of juveniles.

AMMAN — Jordan on Monday signed deals with two companies to build two solar energy-run power plants, Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said.

Under the agreements, the two companies will build power generation facilities in the southern region, each with 10-megawatt capacity, the minister told The Jordan Times after the signing of the two deals.

The agreements raise the number of deals signed by the government for renewable energy projects to 12, he said, ending the first phase of a three-stage project to increase the locally produced renewable energy input. 

“Under the first round, we signed 12 agreements. We have two remaining rounds under which about eight renewable energy projects for power generation will be built,” said the minister.

The total cost of the 12 projects under the first round stands at $560 million, Hamed added.

The 12 projects will generate 470 gigawatt hours per year and will create about 2,500 jobs, said the minister.

“The 12 projects are expected to be completed early 2015 and in mid-2015 they will be connected to the grid,” said the minister.

Hamed said the projects will significantly help cut the country’s rising energy bill, which is one of the main challenges facing state finances.

The ministry is expected to select four companies by September, with each to build a 50-megwatt renewable energy power plant. 

In addition, the ministry said it is expected to select four other companies that will each build a 100-megawatt renewable energy power plant.

Under the country’s energy strategy, electricity generated from renewable sources will represent about 10 per cent of the energy mix by 2020.

AMMAN — Authorities on Monday referred two members of  a banned Islamist party to the State Security Court for attempting to discuss amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law with lawmakers at Parliament. 

In a decision issued early Monday, Prosecutor General Ali Mubaideen referred to trial Islamic Liberation Party members Nayef Lafi and Ibrhaim Al Kharabsheh on charges of “illegal actions that threaten the political regime” and “membership of an illegal organisation” one week after they were arrested outside Parliament.

The Islamic Liberation Party is a regional political movement calling for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate. It is outlawed in Jordan due to its calls for abolishing Arab governments and monarchies.

Lafi and Kharabsheh were reportedly arrested last Tuesday while waiting to meet with lawmakers to express their concerns over the draft amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law.

According to the charge sheet, the two men were arrested one hour before MPs convened to discuss the law in their general session.

“These two men are charged with promoting ideology and propaganda that are beyond personal freedoms and violate the law and will be tried accordingly,” Mubaideen said. 

The court decided to commence the Islamists’ trial in a morning session this Thursday.

Meanwhile, Lafi’s brother, Yaqoub, claimed the detainees have faced “duress” and “stressful conditions” since their arrest last week.

He charged that the two men have been placed in solitary confinement and have remained bound and shackled since their detention — procedures normally reserved for those facing terrorism-related charges or foreign military combatants.

“They are being treated as armed jihadists who have just returned from Syria,” charged Yaqoub, who visited the two men on Saturday.

According to their relatives, Lafi and Kharabsheh had attempted to meet with lawmakers Mohammad Hajaya and Mohammad Qatatsheh to discuss their objection to the legislation, which was forwarded by MPs to the Lower House Legal Committee last Tuesday.

The two deputies could not be reached for comment.

In a statement issued earlier this week, the Islamic Liberation Party’s Jordan branch called on lawmakers to secure the release of its two detained members, whom they referred to as “political prisoners”, and to scrap the amended Anti-Terrorism Law to “protect the freedom of expression” in the country.

The government referred an amended Anti-Terrorism Law to Parliament last week in a bid to tackle the growing number of threats posed by jihadist and Islamist militant groups in Syria.

Human rights and political activists have raised objections to the proposed legislation, which they claim includes broad terms such as “seditious acts” and “damage to the civic environment” and criminalises the publishing of “terrorist ideology” by news websites.

Authorities have defended the legislation, which lays out clear penalties for support or affiliation to “terrorist” groups in neighbouring countries.

AMMAN — The UNHCR will now have 90 days to examine applications submitted by refugees who enter Jordan under amendments introduced to a memorandum of understanding and signed on Monday.

The Interior Ministry and the UNHCR signed the amendments to the memo, which was first signed in 1998 and gave the UN agency between 21 and 30 days to examine applications.

Interior Minister Hussain Majali and UNHCR Representative to Jordan Andrew Harper signed the memo, which also stipulates extending the validity of a refugee identification card to one year instead of six months.

Over the years the government and the UNHCR have managed to deal professionally with the influx of Iraqi and Syrian refugees, Majali said. However, the current developments related to the high influx of Syrian refugees called for amending these articles of the agreement.

According to official figures, there are 1.3 million Syrians in the Kingdom, 618,000 of whom are registered refugees with the UNHCR.

Majali noted that the cost of providing health services alone to Syrian refugees exceeded JD23 million.

“Today marks another example of Jordan’s commitment to protect Syrian refugees,” Harper said.

This is a time when Jordan has been under unbearable strain due to hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees, he added. “It is up to the international community to work harder to mitigate the impact of the crisis on Jordan.”

Saleh Kilani, refugee affairs coordinator at the Interior Ministry, explained that this “partnership” memo came into effect in 1998 to regulate the relations between the government and the UNHCR as Jordan is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In an interview with The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, he noted that the agreement has 13 articles to regulate this relationship, and only two articles were amended to give the UNHCR more time to deal with the large number of refugees.