Business

AMMAN — Jordanian and Turkish businessmen operating in the Kingdom last week launched the Jordanian-Turkish Business Forum. The step seeks to stimulate and develop economic, industrial and commercial ties between both sides.  Stressing its importance, Samir Khouri, who heads the forum, thanked Turkey’s Ambassador to Jordan Sedat Önal for his support of the forum and its establishment.

Economic developments and the competitive investment environment in Jordan contributed to boosting the economic exchange between Amman and Ankara, he added. Önal called on all stakeholders to develop the forum’s work as it will serve both countries’ businesspeople, through holding meetings that can acquaint them with investments available in both countries, according to a statement of the forum. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter shares dove in after-hours trades on Wednesday on the heels of a report that Google does not plan to bid for the culture-changing but unprofitable one-to-many messaging service.

The technology news website Recode cited unnamed sources close to the situation as saying Google will not be among those in the running to buy San Francisco-based Twitter.

Other sources said that Twitter should have “low expectations” of Apple being among those vying to buy the company, Recode reported.

Twitter shares, which had taken flight on the New York Stock Exchange early in the day and ended formal trading up nearly 6 per cent, dove more than 9 per cent in after-market trades to $22.58.

Long-simmering speculation that Twitter is putting itself up for sale has boiled over in recent weeks, with the share price buoyed by unconfirmed talk that business-cloud software titan Salesforce, Google and other Silicon Valley titans were expected to be suitors.

Twitter and Google did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

Twitter, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has yet to make a profit. Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned as chief executive last year but has yet to ignite growth, with the number of users stagnating at slightly more than 300 million for several quarters.

After falling to its lowest point ever earlier this year, Twitter shares were boosted recently on hopes the company will gain traction or a make a promising match with a suitor.

Twitter was expected to begin accepting bids this week.

The social messaging platform would be a big-ticket item, with its value based on the share price topping $17 billion on Wednesday, and the company likely to want a premium to be paid.

No suitors have declared interest in Twitter publicly, however.

The list of companies that may still seek to buy Twitter includes entertainment giant Disney, Microsoft, and the US telecom service Verizon.

WASHINGTON — Globalisation has largely benefited the world, but must be “different” in the future, with world governments working more to prevent persistent inequality, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

“We know that globalisation has worked over the years that it has delivered great benefits to many people,” Lagarde, the IMF managing director, told reporters on Thursday at the opening of joint annual meetings with the World Bank.

“We don’t think it’s time to push against it,” said Lagarde, pointing specifically to the rising debate over free trade. 

“It needs to be slightly different, it cannot be that push for trade as we have seen it historically.”

Both the IMF and the World Bank, longtime supporters of free trade, face a political climate in which trade liberalisation is increasingly unpopular.

The failure to support displaced workers and others affected by globalisation has encouraged protectionist sentiment in the developed world, according to the IMF.

Voters in Britain this year voted to secede from the European Union and both US presidential nominees have said they oppose the White House’s signature Pacific Rim trade pact.

Lagarde called on member states to make the forces of economic globalistion “work for all and to pay attention to those that are at risk of being left out, whether it is as result of technology digital economy or international trade”.

Also addressing reporters on Thursday, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim likewise acknowledged the need for inclusive economic development.

“Our research shows that inequality is still far too high, both globally and within countries, constraining growth and breeding instability,” he said. 

“We need to focus on growth and continue to reduce inequality — and we have to make growth more equitable, and more sustainable.”

KUWAIT CITY — The Kuwaiti government agreed to compensate citizens for hiking petrol prices in a plan to “partially liberalise” the fuel subsidy, parliament speaker Marzouk Al Ghanem said on Wednesday.

Those holding driver’s licences would be compensated with a quantity of “free petrol” each month, Ghanem told reporters after a three-hour meeting between the government and a number of lawmakers.

Ghanem said the amount of free petrol that would be given was about 75 litres (20 gallons) a month per citizen.

The cost of petrol would be revised on a monthly basis, depending on the price of oil on international markets, he said, adding this represented a “partial liberalisation” of subsidies.

Kuwait fully liberalised the prices of diesel and kerosene at the start of 2015.

Foreigners, who make up almost 70 per cent of the oil-rich Gulf state’s 4.3 million population, still pay the full price.

The hike, ranging from about 40 to 80 per cent depending on the type of fuel, went into effect on September 1 as part of reform measures to plug a budget deficit resulting from low oil prices.

It was the first such increase since 1998.

But a number of MPs who attended the meeting rejected the deal as insufficient.

“This is not acceptable to us. We can not agree to a deal that harms Kuwaiti citizens’ income,” said MP Saad Al Khanfour.

“I plan to question ministers over this issue,” he told reporters.

MP Majed Musa said he and a group of lawmakers were working on a certain move against the government. He did not elaborate.

“Kuwaiti citizens are not beggars. Any measure that negatively affects citizens’ income is rejected,” Musa said.

The OPEC member recorded a budget shortfall of 4.6 billion dinars ($15.3 billion) in the fiscal year which ended on March 31, according to official figures.

It was the first shortfall since the fiscal year to March 1999.

Kuwait’s lower court last week ruled that the increase of petrol prices was unlawful because of procedural flaws.

The government has challenged the ruling before the appeals court defending its procedures.

AMMAN — Total real estate trading volume dropped at the end of September by 3 per cent to JD5.278 billion from JD5.464 billion at the end of the same period last year, according to figures of the Department of Land and Survey issued on Wednesday.

The department’s revenues went down by 12 per cent to JD248 million from JD281 million; the figure recorded at the end of the same period of 2015. Real estate registration departments of Amman, accounted for 72 per cent of the trading volume or JD3.805 billion at the end of September this year, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

LONDON/DUBAI — Intensive care wards in Yemen's hospitals are filled with emaciated children hooked up to monitors and drips — victims of food shortages that could get even worse due to a reorganisation of the central bank that is worrying importers.

With food ships finding it hard to get into Yemen's ports due to a virtual blockade by the Saudi-led coalition that has backed the government during an 18-month civil war, over half the country's 28 million people already do not have enough to eat, according to the United Nations.

Yemen's exiled president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, last month ordered the central bank's headquarters to be moved from the capital Sanaa, controlled by Houthi rebels in the north, to the southern port of Aden, which is held by the government. He also appointed a new governor, a member of his government who has said the bank has no money.

Trade sources involved in importing food to the Arab peninsula's poorest country say this decision will leave them financially exposed and make it harder to bring in supplies.

Diplomats and aid officials believe the crisis surrounding the central bank could adversely affect ordinary Yemenis.

"The politicisation of the central bank and attempts by the parties in the conflict to use it as a tool to hurt one another ... threaten to push the poorest over the edge", said Richard Stanforth, humanitarian policy adviser with Oxfam.

"Everything is stacked against the people on the brink of starvation in Yemen."

The effects of food shortages can already be seen. At the children's emergency unit at the Thawra hospital in the port of Hodaida, tiny patients with skin sagging over their bones writhe in beds. Hallways and waiting rooms are crowded with parents seeking help for their hungry and dying children.

Salem Issa, 6, rests his stick-thin limbs on a hospital bed as his mother watches over him. "I have a sick child, I used to feed him biscuits, but he's sick, he won't eat," she said.

A nurse said the ward began taking in around 10 to 20 cases in April, but now struggles with 120 patients per month.

The World Food Programme says half Yemen's children under five are stunted, meaning they are too short for their age because of chronic malnutrition.

Importers struggling

In July, Reuters reported that importers were already struggling to buy food from abroad because $260 million worth of their funds were frozen in Yemeni banks, while Western banks had cut credit lines.

Since then, importers have guaranteed much of the risk of financing shipments themselves.

The decision to move the central bank, seen as the last impartial bastion of the country's financial system which has helped keep the economy afloat in wartime, is viewed as a major blow for suppliers who are mistrustful of the decision and expect even more chaos ahead. Foreign exchange is already scarce and the sources do not have confidence in the new governor.

All of this will lead to further food disruptions and more hardship for Yemenis already facing impending famine, according to the trade sources.

"We have begun to cancel our forward contracts — it's just impossible to trade when there is no financial system in place. There is no coverage from the central bank where we can trust them or know them," said one source.

"This leaves anyone bringing in cargoes completely exposed," added the source, who declined to be identified due to the worsening security situation and fear of reprisals.

Shipping data showed at least nine vessels carrying supplies such as wheat and sugar were on the way to the Yemeni ports of Hodaida and Salif, but the source said there were worries for forward shipments for late October and November.

A second trade source also active in Yemen confirmed the growing difficulties.

"Western banks are not willing to process payments and the whole system is freezing up. It is an ever growing struggle to do anything commercial," the second source said.

"Obtaining foreign exchange has to be done through currency smuggling. Yemen is like a country of smugglers now — this is unacceptable."

Dwindling reserves

The old central bank in the capital Sanaa used Yemen's dwindling foreign exchange reserves to guarantee shipments into a country which imports 90 per cent of its food.

But Hadi disliked the bank paying salaries to his foes in the army and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement opposed to his internationally recognised government.

Struggling to advance on the battlefield and keen to undermine the Houthis, Hadi dismissed the bank's governor, Mohamed Bin Humam, named Finance Minister Monasser Al Quaiti in his place and decreed the bank be moved to Aden.

It was a sudden decision that aroused suspicion among traders.

"The governor Humam enjoyed the confidence of all parties since he was clearly independent and working in the best interests of Yemen. To now appoint a minister of finance of the government is a retrograde step and none of the traders have any confidence in him or in the bank in Aden," the first trade source said.

The new governor of the central bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Quaiti told the Saudi-owned Asharq Al Awsat newspaper on Thursday he had inherited a bank with no money, but he pledged to keep it independent.

Ibrahim Mahmoud, of Yemen's Social Development Fund, said only an improvement in the country's financial system and an emergency aid effort could stop the spread of hunger.

"If there is no direct and immediate intervention on behalf of the international community and state organisations, we could be threatened by famine and a humanitarian catastrophe."

Even though moving the central bank seemed to be aimed at hurting the Houthis, Yemeni economic officials and diplomats say the group has its own financial resources.

Losing out on $100 million in salaries to its fighters as suggested by the new bank governor may hurt the Houthis, but the bank's closure in Sanaa is likely to hurt ordinary people already suffering from a collapse in the economy due to the war.

"It risks leaving the salaries of more than a million Yemenis unpaid. There may be a long-term effect on the Houthis, but the immediate effect will be on normal people trying to put food on the table", Yemeni economic analyst Amal Nasser said.

AMMAN — Senator and Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad on Tuesday applauded the Cabinet’s decision to reduce the electricity tariff for various economic sectors. In an ACC statement, he commended the government’s positive response to the demands of the private sector that always stressed the need to reconsider the electricity tariff.

On Monday, the Cabinet reduced the tariff for various industrial sectors including mining, and telecom companies by 27 fils/kilowatt hour. The decision covers trade sector outlets, including malls, small shops and restaurants as well as hotels and large industries. 

AMMAN — Royal Jordanian (RJ) operated an additional 149 flights during September to cater to pilgrims and tourists, the airline announced on Tuesday. The Hajj pilgrimage, Eid Al Adha and “a remarkable growth of tourism traffic” led to increased demand for flights, RJ said in a statement, adding that aircraft utilisation rose to 13 hours per day, above the annual average of 11.7 hours daily.

RJ ran 34 extra flights for Jordanian pilgrims travelling to Medina and Jeddah to perform Hajj, as well as flights for pilgrims from other RJ routes transiting through Amman. The airline also operated 63 charter flights to tourist sites in Turkey, Egypt and Greece for Jordanians taking advantage of the Eid Al Adha holiday to travel.  A further 52 additional flights were scheduled to Europe, the UAE and Saudi Arabia to accommodate Jordanian expatriats returning abroad after holidays in the Kingdom, RJ said.