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AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Tuesday underlined the “deep” Jordanian-Algerian relationship and the Kingdom’s commitment to building on them at all levels.

At a meeting with Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtan Lamamra, the premier said cooperation between the two countries has prospered during the last few decades, especially in economic, education, industry, aviation and media areas.

Ensour highlighted challenges facing the Kingdom due to regional unrest and hosting a huge number of Syrian refugees, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Discussions also covered the latest developments in the region, especially the Palestinian issue and the Syrian crisis.

For his part, Lamamra underlined his country’s keenness to improve cooperation with Jordan, calling for reactivating the work of joint committees.

He noted that there are several Algerian companies operating in the Kingdom.

The official congratulated Jordan for securing a UN Security Council seat.

Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh met with Lamamra and discussed prospects for further cooperation.

Judeh acquainted the official with the outcomes of the Friends of Syria meeting in Paris, which was held on Sunday, in addition to the results of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee’s talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials.

He also highlighted the course of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis and efforts to render them a success to arrive at the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, according to Petra.

The two parties called for expediting efforts to hold the Geneva II conference in order to come up with a political solution for the Syrian crisis.

Meanwhile, Judeh met with his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn and looked into the latest regional developments and peace efforts.

At a press conference following the meeting, Judeh stressed the importance of coordinating with Luxembourg as Jordan is a non-permanent UN Security Council member, noting that Asselborn was on a visit to Jordan to take part in an event held by international organisations, intellectuals and diplomats to talk about the aftermath of the Syrian crisis.

Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif also met separately with Asselborn and discussed the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on Jordan. 

AMMAN — Going down the stairs to Fawaz Sahloul’s house, one would not imagine that it accommodates a seven-member family.

The mouldy apartment, located in the west Amman suburb of Wadi Seer, speaks of a life of despair that the family has been living since Sahloul was taken ill and could not continue working.

“Our house is in really bad shape. Water is leaking everywhere and we lack privacy,” said Sahloul’s wife, Um Mohammad.

The family, which includes young children still in school, is left with no provider.

“My husband has diabetes and a mental illness, and I do not have the courage to go out and work,” Um Mohammad told The Jordan Times.

But the family will now have a bright future to look forward to after HRH Princess Basma, president of the National Goodwill Campaign’s higher committee, paid a visit to their home Tuesday.

The campaign will renovate the apartment and provide the necessary furniture, while the family will receive assistance and medical care.

The princess also visited the house of Halima Sandoqa, a 50-year-old unemployed woman who is left to care for her seven children after her Egyptian husband went back to his country five years ago to be treated for kidney failure.

Under the goodwill campaign, the house, also located in Wadi Seer, will be rehabilitated.

In addition, some 100 families from the area received urgent assistance, such as basic food supplies, blankets and heaters.

During a meeting with members of the local community, Princess Basma listened to their needs and challenges.

She called for expanding the outreach of charity initiatives and institutionalising them.

Tuesday’s visit also included the east Amman neighbourhood of Hai Nazzal, where 100 families received much-needed winter assistance.

Jordan Engineers Association Deputy President Majed Tabaa said a technical team will be formed to identify the needs of the houses that the princess visited on Tuesday to carry out the necessary maintenance work.

Launched by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, the National Goodwill Campaign has grown over the years to become synonymous with support for the poor and the marginalised.

AMMAN — Telecom companies, app developers, software and mobile firms, and stakeholders in the ICT sector will soon launch a strategy to increase Jordan’s presence in the app industry, estimated to account for $100 billion in trading this year.

The strategy, to be announced in February, will detail a series of activities that all stakeholders will work on to “unify fragmented efforts” so as to make the local app industry mature, Nour Khrais, chairman of the Jordan Gaming Task Force, told The Jordan Times.

Khrais made the remarks following a workshop on Tuesday that attracted representatives of telecoms, app development firms, software companies, mobile manufacturers and IT experts.

“All participants at today’s event agreed to jointly work on a project to develop an application that addresses the needs of Jordanians,” he said.

“The application might address some of the environmental or traffic problems Amman is facing. This will be the start of cooperation among all stakeholders to boost the industry and unify efforts to develop it,” Khrais added.

The Gaming Lab and Umniah, in cooperation with AppCircus, a platform for showcasing the latest innovations for mobile phone apps through online challenges and road shows, organised Tuesday’s event.

At a later stage, stakeholders will work together on creating a platform called “Apps 4 Amman”, where several apps related to tourist attractions, restaurants, traffic guides, cinemas, hospitals, entertainment facilities and other utilities, will be posted online.

“We all need to work together to create an ecosystem that boosts the app industry in Jordan. The potential for business is huge as this year alone trading in this industry is expected to reach $100 billion,” Carles Ferreiro, co-founder and CEO of dotopen, said.

“The size of the app industry is becoming closer to the size of the movie industry, and by unifying efforts… this industry can help create jobs,” Ferreiro said during the workshop.

dotopen is an open innovation company that facilitates the development of innovation ecosystems.

During the workshop, participants highlighted several challenges facing the industry.

Abdul Malek Al Jaber, the founder and CEO of MENA Apps and chairman and CEO of Middle East Payment Services, said offering proper incubation programmes and providing incentives to young developers, as well as following up on their work through mentorship, are fundamental to the growth of the local app industry.

Stressing the need for the constant development of telecom networks to boost the app industry, Umniah CEO Ihab Hinnawi said the rise in demand for apps requires telecom operators to invest more in their networks.

He said that the absence of collaboration among players in the industry represents a main obstacle towards moving forward.

One of the challenges facing the industry is the lack of clearly defined laws to govern it and create a proper ecosystem to help it flourish, Zain Jordan CEO Ahmad Hanandeh noted at the workshop.

Others highlighted the lack of trust among Jordanians in online payments as an obstacle hindering the app industry’s growth.

“Internet transactions and paying online for apps, for example, is an issue in Jordan. People do not trust online payments and this is relevant also to the entire Arab region,” Abed Shamlawi, CEO of the ICT Association of Jordan, said during the event.