Business

TUNIS — Tunisia, whose economy has remained stagnant since the ouster of a long-time dictator in 2011, unveiled the outlines Tuesday of a five-year plan to cut unemployment by stimulating growth.

The country's key tourism sector has been badly shaken by two deadly attacks on foreign tourists by militants. Growth only reached 1 per cent in 2014, and the government recently said that figure would be halved this year.

Joblessness stands at nearly 30 per cent, with the number even higher among young people, and one in six Tunisians lives below the poverty line. The plan, published by the development ministry, envisages average annual gross domestic product growth of 5 per cent, starting off with a moderate gain next year and accelerating from 2018.

The higher growth, stimulated by better governance, diversification and regionalisation of the economy, would see unemployment dropping from 15.2 per cent to 11 per cent by 2020. At the same time, the budget deficit would be trimmed.

Last week, central bank chief Chedly Ayari said Tunisia would ask the International Monetary Fund for a new aid package, at least equal a $1.7 billion (1.5-billion-euro) credit line granted in 2013.

FRANKFURT/BEIJING — Volkswagen and other major carmakers have begun reining in Chinese output, wages and other costs, industry sources told Reuters, as executives at the Frankfurt Auto Show put a brave face on a sharp slowdown in the world's biggest vehicle market.

The German car giant's Chinese joint venture, FAW-VW, is cancelling staff bonuses and cutting shifts at its plants near Changchun, northeastern China, people with knowledge of the matter said. The bonuses being scrapped typically account for more than half of the assembly line workers' take-home pay.

Volkswagen's (VW) high-end Audi brand also said it had eased back output at its Chinese plants, trimming the working week to five days from seven in response to lower demand for models such as the A6 saloon.

And German rival BMW said on Tuesday it had reduced output of its locally produced 3 and 5 series models. 

"We reacted relatively fast," Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner told journalists. "We are not stockpiling."

Car sales in China, until recently the profit engine for automakers around the world, have been hit by a cooling economy and a plunging stock market. Demand was flat in the first eight months of the year and could drop in 2015 for the first time since the market took off in the late 1990s.

At the opening day of the Frankfurt Auto Show on Tuesday, industry executives expressed confidence about the long-term growth potential of the Chinese market, and said any short-term hit could be offset by a strengthening recovery in Europe.

Industry data showed European car sales jumped 11.5 per cent year-on-year in August.

But some analysts said the Chinese slowdown was coming at a time when carmakers are still opening factories in the country, creating an excess of capacity that could weigh on profits.

Leading research group IHS Automotive expects carmakers' capacity utilisation rates in China to drop to 65 per cent from last year's 70 per cent, a key profitability threshold.

French carmaker Renault also told Reuters the slowdown in China could drag global auto market growth below the 1 per cent it had previously forecast for 2015.

It predicts a slight rebound in China next year, with global growth of 2-3 per cent, but Europe slipping back from a stronger-than-expected 7-8 per cent this year to just 2 per cent in 2016.

‘Very depressed’

"The mood is very depressed at VW, BMW or General Motors," said Clemens Wasner of Austrian automotive consultancy EFS, which advises several German carmakers in Asia.

China has accounted for more than half of VW's profit in recent years and about 40 per cent at General Motors (GM), which is pursuing a $14 billion expansion in China with its local partners.

Both VW and GM have already begun trimming local production, by around 5 per cent in July, according to one China-based consultant.

GM President Dan Ammann told Reuters TV he had "some sleepless nights but we feel like we're in a good position" in China, pointing out that the company was about to release several new sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) "right into the sweet spot where there's still strong growth".

GM China chief Matt Tsien said in May that GM was determined to keep operating margins as high as 9-10 per cent by selling more SUVs and higher-end cars. It ruled out a significant review of its China plans as recently as July.

The US group could nonetheless put the brakes on planned capacity increases, a person close to the company said, and has room to trim costs at existing facilities by halting production for longer breaks, reducing shifts and cutting workers' bonuses.

"They can immediately reduce extra months of salary payments which are very common in the good times," the source added.

VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn told Reuters TV in Frankfurt he remained upbeat about China, but noted a shift in demand there.

"The eastern part of China is rather stagnating, while the West is growing," he indicated. "Many people live in the West and we just built a factory there. We are looking to China with confidence and expect to keep growing."

Audi chief Rupert Stadler, meanwhile, told Reuters TV the brand expected "further growth in China over the medium term ... and will not change our investment plans."

BMW, the world's biggest luxury carmaker, warned last month its forecasts for this year could be at risk from any further deterioration in the Chinese market, where its sales are falling for the first time in a decade.

Eichiner said on Tuesday he saw no reason for BMW to change its full-year targets, though it was too early to talk of a recovery in Chinese demand.

German rival Daimler said it had no plans to revise production in China and saw no risk of overcapacity at its plants there.

However, PSA Peugeot Citroen's premium DS brand said it was helping its Chinese dealers to refinance and expected to fall short of its full-year sales network expansion target.

NEW YORK — Companies with a corporate culture that degrades employees, pits them against each other and encourages workers to toil more for less money may flourish in the short term but the results are unlikely to last for long, management experts warn.

Abusive practices in the workplace will eventually take a toll in lost creativity, waste and employee turnover that could hit productivity and company profits.

"I don't think it is sustainable over the long haul," said Larry Johnson, a corporate culture expert and author. "There are a lot of companies that do very well by having a fun and exciting culture where you don't have to treat people like slaves or drive them against the wall."

American corporate culture came under the spotlight when the New York Times wrote an expose last month that described tech giant Amazon as a "bruising workplace". 

Many employees worked long hours, were criticised by managers, sabotaged by co-workers and dismissed in an annual culling to weed out the weak, the newspaper said.

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive officer of Amazon, challenged the depiction of the company he founded in 1994, saying it was an Amazon he did not recognise.

Amazon is not the first company that has been scrutinised for how it treats its employees, nor is the corporate culture it is accused of promoting unique.

Kim Cameron, a management professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said any company that belittles its workers is limiting its growth and potential.

"It could grow and flourish far greater, from three to eight times more, by implementing positive practices," he added.

Technology company Google ranked first for the sixth time in Fortune magazine's 2015 list of best companies to work.

Diminished creativity, loyalty

Employees thrive in a positive environment, are less likely to report feeling burned out, or to call in sick, and are more committed to the organisation, according to research published in the Harvard Business Review.

By contrast, Cameron indicated that an abusive corporate culture breeds contempt, diminishes creativity, commitment and loyalty that will impede growth because employees will leave. 

It also costs from three to about eight times more to hire a new employee than to keep one, he remarked.

"So for organisations that say we are just going to turn over all these people, it's enormously inefficient and costly," Cameron said.

He is also critical of stack ranking, a process in which managers grade employees on a bell curve. He believes it de-motivates workers, does not promote honesty in appraisals and breeds a culture of prima donnas and back stabbing.

Johnson, the Arizona-based co-author of the book "Absolute Honesty: Building a Corporate Culture that Values Straight Talk and Rewards Integrity," is also not a fan of stack ranking.

"To have them [employees] fight it out like gladiators in the arena with a few every year being slaughtered, I think is detrimental to corporate health and culture," he said.

Johnson likens corporations with negative cultures to going through a military boot camp.

"A lot of people go there to get the training. They spend a year or two and they go on to do their own thing," he said. "There is a better way to run a company with a culture that is benevolent and celebrates their people."

AMMAN — Royal Jordanian (RJ) announced on Monday in a press statement that it signed a code share agreement with Turkish Airlines (TK) on routes between Jordan and Turkey.

"[The agreement] is set to further expand travel opportunities for customers of the two airlines," the press release said.  "The accord will be effective as of September 21, 2015."

RJ President/Chief Executive Officer Haitham Misto and TK Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Temel Kotil  signed the deal in the presence of the Turkish Ambassador to Jordan SedatÖnal and officials from both sides.

"This new code share agreement is bound to broaden the commercial partnership between the two companies. At the same time, passengers of both airlines will be given more travel options between Jordan and Turkey," the press statement added. 

Under the terms of the agreement, RJ and TK will place their carrier codes on each other’s flights between Amman and Istanbul and RJ will place its carrier code on Turkish Airlines’ flights between Aqaba and Istanbul. 

The agreement might also enable the two carriers to put their codes on the flights to other destinations operated beyond the two capitals in the future.  

Misto expressed satisfaction with this commercial partnership with a well-established and rapidly growing carrier like TK, which enjoys a broad route network. 

Several worldwide points that TK serves will be open to RJ passengers flying from Amman and Aqaba to Istanbul and from there to various airports on the TK’s network.

Misto stressed that travellers of both airlines will experience a streamlined level of services to the destinations covered by the agreement onboard two modern fleets of aircraft.

He also expressed hope that the step will be the first on the way to further enhancing relations between the two airlines in the future.

Temel Kotil said in the press release: “We are extremely pleased to sign this codeshare agreement with RJ and aim to improve our partnership to maximise the travel opportunities offered to our passengers through the networks of both airlines. Additionally, we believe that this partnership with Royal Jordanian will bring enormous benefit to both airlines from a commercial perspective in rapidly growing relations between our countries.”

Both RJ and TK operate 14 frequencies weekly Istanbul — Amman flights, and 3 weekly regular flights between Istanbul and Aqaba being operated by TK.

"This latest agreement raises the number of code share agreements with RJ to 16, half of them with oneworld carriers and the other half with Arab and international airlines. They are: American Airlines, US Airways, Air Berlin, British Airways, Iberia, Siberia airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, Oman Air, Middle East Airlines, Tarom, Gulf Air, Syrian Air, Meridiana Fly Airlines and Qatar Airways," the statement concluded.

PARIS — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Monday trimmed its forecast for global oil demand next year as emerging markets, which have been the motor of world growth in recent years, splutter.

Cheap oil prices should be enough to keep oil demand growing slightly in volume terms next year, but also nearly halt the expansion of non-OPEC resources, the oil group indicated in its monthly report.

Better than expected growth in the United States and the eurozone prompted OPEC to nudge up its forecast for world oil demand growth this year to 1.46 million barrels per day (bpd) to 92.79 million bpd.

Oil demand was stronger than it had forecast in the main consuming countries "mainly driven by lower oil prices".

However OPEC cut its 2016 forecast to a 1.29 million bpd gain to 94.08 million bpd "due to the projected slower economic momentum in Latin America and China".

The slowdown in China, which has dampened the prospects for commodities producers and sparked volatility in markets in recent weeks, led OPEC to trim its forecast for global economic growth to 3.1 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent in 2016.

"While the group of emerging and developing economies has been the main growth engine in recent years, it has become clear that growth in this group is slowing down," said OPEC.

Low oil prices were also beginning to have an impact on production, it remarkked.

The global oil market has been driven for the past year and half by an increasingly transparent policy by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia to safeguard its market influence against upstart shale producers who could change global dynamics by cutting US dependence on imported oil.

The refusal of Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners to cut production has seen crude oil prices slump from more than $100 per barrel in 2013 to less than $40 last month, putting the squeeze on high-cost US producers.

"US oil production has shown signs of slowing," said OPEC. "This could contribute to a reduction in the imbalance of oil market fundamentals, however, it remains to be seen to what extent this can be achieved in the months to come." 

However OPEC still sees a marginal increase of US oil production to 13.97 million bpd next year from 13.75 million bpd, with output from shale producers also to nudge up if prices hold at current levels.

That contrasts with a forecast made last week by the International Energy Agency, which analyses energy markets for oil consuming nations, that non-OPEC oil output may drop by half a million barrels per day next year, the biggest decline in 24 years, with US shale producers accounting for four-fifths of that drop.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — The deadly collapse of a construction crane in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca has highlighted the controversial pace of high-end urban development in the birthplace of Islam.

More than 100 people died on Friday when the crane toppled into a courtyard of the Grand Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, during a thunderstorm.

The crane was one of several at the site in western Saudi Arabia where hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world have converged ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month.

A multi-billion-dollar effort was launched four years ago to expand the mosque to accommodate increasing numbers of pilgrims.

But as the expansion of the Grand Mosque is widely welcomed to cope with the influx, modern urbanisation around the mosque has garnered criticism.

Towering over the place of prayer, a different type of development has taken shape, gargantuan commercial projects which critics say have erased Mecca's heritage and threatened its spirituality.

Local authorities, however, defend the city's urban projects, which include rail and road improvements, as a modernisation effort that makes visitors more comfortable.

"Mecca is not any ordinary city," said Irfan Al Alawi, co-founder of the Mecca-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.

He is concerned that the city's many skyscrapers are "making it look like Manhattan".

Chief among them is the 76-storey Mecca Royal Clock Tower and the gargantuan Abraj Al Bait complex attached to it.

One of the world's largest buildings in terms of floor space, the six towers in the complex include luxury hotel rooms and a multi-storey shopping mall.

The Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel boasts 56 elevators and says "discerning guests have the privilege of choosing their rooms showcasing unrivaled views" that include the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque.

All Muslims face the cube-shaped Kaaba to pray, and circumambulating the Kaaba is one of the rituals of the hajj.

At 601 metres, the clock tower is the world's third-tallest building.

'Dynamiting mountains'

At its summit is a golden crescent moon and the four-faced illuminating clock, several times larger than London's Big Ben.

It bears the words "In the Name of Allah", and its size helps visitors at other holy sites locate the mosque and Kaaba.

Pilgrims leaving the mosque are bombarded by advertisements from the facades of the nearby tall buildings.

"Here we are dynamiting mountains to make way for big huge skyscrapers such as the clock tower," said Alawi.

He is an outspoken critic of redevelopment at the Muslim holy sites, which he says is wiping away tangible links to the Prophet Mohammed.

"People visit the Grand Mosque to worship and to have spirituality linked to God. But it's become a holiday resort," he said, noting the availability of hotel swimming and gym facilities.

"It's losing its spirituality," he added. "You wouldn't find this sort of entertainment anywhere near the Vatican. So why is it happening in Mecca ?"

But Shaker Al Sharif Al Harthi of the Mecca Chamber of Commerce defended the clock tower as "a landmark not only in Mecca but the whole kingdom". 

Faisal Al Salmi, a teacher, said the city's unprecedented construction growth has brought jobs and investment opportunities.

Fifty-year-old pictures of the Haram, or sacred site around the Kaaba, show a modest mosque surrounded by old neighbourhoods.

Many of these were razed in initial expansion projects for the Grand Mosque.

Four years ago, the late King Abdullah inaugurated the latest project, a 400,000-square-metre enlargement of the Grand Mosque.

That is the equivalent of more than 50 football pitches, and it will allow the complex to accommodate roughly two million people at once.

"What is happening here is a major development boom through enhancing public-private partnership," said Fahad Al Harbi, a district chief in Mecca.

He added that the city's transportation projects as well as improvements at the Grand Mosque and other sites, "are implemented to ease the experience of the visitors".

Mahmoud Damanhory, a board member for Southeast Asia Pilgrims' Guides, a group which assists pilgrims from that part of the world, said authorities are transforming Mecca into a "First World" city.

For Abdullah Hasan, a Sudanese pilgrim returning after 10 years to perform hajj again, the city's progress in hotels, transport and other areas is a welcome change.

He said foreign guests are praying in thanks to the kingdom's leaders "for the comfort they have provided to pilgrims and visitors".

BEIJING — China unveiled details on Sunday of how it would restructure its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including partial privatisation, as data pointed to a cooling in the world's second-largest economy.

The guidelines, jointly issued by the Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, included plans to clean up and integrate some state firms, the official Xinhua news agency said. It did not elaborate.

Reform of underperforming state-owned enterprises is one of China's most pressing needs. But if not handled well, the restructuring could lead to hundreds of thousands of people being laid off and social instability.

According to Xinhua, the plans included introducing "mixed ownership" by bringing in private investment, and "decisive results" were expected by 2020.

The government will not force "mixed ownership", nor will it set a timetable, giving each firm the go-ahead only when conditions are mature, it said.

"This reform will be positive for improving the impetus of the economy and making growth more sustainable," said Xu Hongcai, director of the economic research department at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a Beijing-based think-think.

Partial privatisation, he added, would help establish "check-and-balance and incentive systems" at state firms.

China's government manages 111 companies centrally under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Local governments own and manage around 25,000 state-owned companies and the sector employs nearly 7.5 million people.

State firms will be allowed to bring in "various investors" to help diversify share ownership, and more state firms will be encouraged to restructure to pave the way for stock listings, Xinhua indicated.

Private investors will be encouraged to buy stakes in state firms, buy convertible bonds issued by state firms, or swap shares with state firms, it said, adding steps will be taken to curb corruption during reforms.

SOEs will be divided into commercial and public welfare-related businesses during the reform process. Oil and gas, electricity, railways and telecommunications were identified as sectors that could be suitable for limited non-state investment.

However, Beijing will have to persuade entrenched interests at local, provincial and national governments to relinquish some control over state enterprises and attract investors to buy shares after one of the worst stock market crashes in China's history.

Missed forecasts

And Xinhua indicated that full-scale privatisation was not on the cards, saying the government was aiming to "cultivate a large number of state-owned backbone enterprises with innovation capability and international competitiveness".

The guidelines called for a flexible and market-based compensation system at state firms by linking pay with company performance.

The details were issued after the government said growth in China's investment and factory output missed forecasts in August. The data followed weak trade and inflation readings, raising the chances that economic growth may dip below 7 per cent in the third quarter for the first time since the global financial crisis.

"Overall, the economy is very weak and the central bank may have to continue cutting interest rates and banks' reserve requirement," said Zhou Hao, senior economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. Zhou says growth would probably dip below 7 per cent in the July-September quarter.

Some economists believe growth is already much weaker than official data suggests.

August power output, for example, rose just 1 per cent year-on-year, and production of key industrial commodities such as steel and coal weakened.

Growth in fixed-asset investment, a crucial economic driver, slowed to 10.9 per cent in the first eight months of 2015, the weakest pace in nearly 15 years, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Sunday.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast an 11.1 per cent rise, compared with 11.2 per cent in January-July.

Factory output rose a weaker than expected 6.1 per cent in August from a year earlier. Markets had expected a 6.4 per cent increase, up from July's 6 per cent.

Annual growth in real estate investment also continued to cool to 3.5 per cent in the first eight months, the weakest since early 2009, from 4.3 per cent in January-July.

While home sales and prices are slowly recovering from a slump last year, property area sold rose at a slightly faster pace of 7.2 per cent in January-August, analysts say it will take time for developers to work off a huge overhang of unsold houses.

Single positive

Retail sales were the single positive surprise, growing 10.8 per cent in August from a year earlier and above forecasts of 10.5 per cent, the same as July.

But the increase did not appear to chime with corporate reports of slowing sales.

China's yuan devaluation in August and a plunge in stock markets since June have fuelled fears of more economic shocks, although Premier Li Keqiang has brushed off concerns of a hard landing.

Most analysts say the economy is slowing gradually, but not facing a hard landing.

China's central bank has cut interest rate five times since November and repeatedly relaxed banks' reserve requirements to try to boost the sputtering economy.

Further policy easing is widely expected and the government is trying to boost infrastructure investment.

The government is aiming for 2015 economic growth of around 7 per cent, which would be the slowest in a quarter century.

Separately, a senior central bank official was quoted as saying that downward pressure on China's economy will persist in the second half of the year as growth in infrastructure spending and exports is unlikely to pick up.

Chinese companies are not optimistic about business prospects according to the central bank's second-quarter survey, Sheng Songcheng, the director of the statistics division of the People's Bank of China, was quoted as saying by the National Business Daily.

Pressured by uneven domestic and export demand, cooling investment and factory overcapacity, China's economic growth is expected to slow to around 7 per cent this year, the lowest in a quarter of a century, from 7.4 per cent in 2014.

AMMAN — Gross and net pretax profit generated by National Poultry Company (NPC) dropped sharply during the first half of this year as sales weakened considerably.

According to a disclosure sent to the Jordan Securities Commission (JSC), sales during the January-June 2015 period amounted to JD40.8 million, 20.6 per cent down from the JD51.4 million recorded during the first six months of 2014.

After deducting production costs, the mid-year gross profit stood at JD4.1 million, a 33.9 per cent fall from JD6.2 million at the end of June 2014.

Taking into account administrative, selling and distribution expenses as well as banking charges, the net pretax profit became JD1.5 million, a 55.9 per cent plunge from JD3.4 million. 

The mid-year performance included the results of three subsidiaries, namely: National Poultry Farms & Hatcheries Company, Badiah for Juice Company, and Al-Hilal Company for Raising Chicken and Producing Feed.

Auditor Ernest &Young Jordan pointed out in its interim summary review of consolidated financial statements that, during the January-June 2015 period, NPC bought property, machinery and equipment valued at JD0.9 million, compared to JD1.2 million during the first six months of 2014.

"The company upgraded its production lines to be able to meet the needs of the local market and it also worked on expanding the hatcheries, supplying it with modern equipment for hatching, insemination of eggs and sterilisation," the company said in its disclosure to the JSC.  

It indicated that in the first six months of this year,  the fodder plant produced and sold 15,641 tonnes and that the volume of meat and poultry produced and sold totalled 15,591 tonnes.

In stark contrast to the results achieved during the first half of 2015, NPC's 2014 operations were remarkable and distinguished as described by Chairman Mohammed Ahmed Abu Ghazaleh.

In the 21st annual report, the chairman considered last year's figures as record when compared to previous years when profits ranged between JD5.7 million in 2009 and JD1.6 million in 2012 except for the JD3 million loss recorded in 2011.

"[2014] Sales jumped by 10 per cent above the 2013 level to nearly JD100 million and, for the first time, net profit reached JD7.6 million, a 62 per cent increase over  the JD4.7 million posted at the end of 2013," Abu Ghazaleh indicated in a foreword.

A breakdown of the 2014 sales showed that of the JD99 million total, JD89.6 million were poultry and fodder, whereas meat came at JD9.4 million.

In 2013, total sales amounted to JD90 million, JD80.5 million were poultry and fodder and JD9.5 million were meat.  

Besides selling locally in all governorates, the company's export markets cover Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The chairman attributed these notable results to a drop in the costs of production inputs, especially corn and soya, and the efforts of NPC's staff in dealing with viruses and diseases that usually affect the poultry business in the Kingdom. 

Yet, the annual report described competition as fierce listing in this regard imports of frozen chicken at low prices, new companies that entered the market and contributed to excess supply, and the extreme competition from manual slaughtering shops.

It mentioned fluctuations in the prices of imported fodder and  the increase in fuel prices as other risks.

To confront these challenges, the company plans to lower expenses and production costs, raise sales and bring up the output capacity of the poultry slaughterhouse and the chicken feed plant.

It also plans to increase sales of the meat factory, open new export markets and to expand the hatcheries to absorb the volume of eggs produced in the broiler breeders.

Financially, net fixed assets comprising property, machinery and equipment as of June 2015 amounted to JD40.3 million, noting that capital investment calculated at cost was given at JD84.8 million. 

With current assets totalling JD47.7 million, mostly in receivables and inventory, total assets added up to JD88 million, down from 91 million at the end of 2014.

Liabilities amounted to JD13.2 million, nearly half of which were due to Del Monte Fresh Produce Middle East Corporation, a shareholder with a 98.7 per cent equity in NPC at the end of last year.

"Del Monte Fresh Produce [shareholder] opens letters of credit to purchase feed on behalf of the group which, in turn, settles the amount of the letters of credit to Del Monte Fresh Produce Corporation," the annual report said. 

Capitalised at JD30 million, NPC's shareholders' equity also included  1.3 million in mandatory reserves and JD43.5 million in retained earnings bringing the total to JD74.8 million.

Noting that the company did not distribute dividends over the past six years, the general assembly agreed last April to dole out JD4.5 million in cash dividends to 971 shareholders at a rate of 15 per cent. 

The annual report boasted NPC's contributions to the communities in the southern parts of the Kingdom, especially in terms of employment and development.

It indicated that more than 80 per cent of the company's 1,556 workers at the end of 2014 were from the Qatraneh area where NPC's investments in factories and farms are located. Females accounted for more than more than 16 per cent of the employees.

"NPC contributed also by introducing modern technology related to raising poultry," the report said. "Support also included readying and marketing poultry purchases from farmers in the south."

According to the report, the company gave priority to serving the local southern communities in terms of maintenance, sanitary and food purchases besides procurement of spare parts and vehicle requirements.

The company rented buses, water tanks and apartments from the residents of the area in addition to donations and support to various charities and social activities.

AMMAN —  The contribution of private hospitals to the 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) was 3.65 per cent, Private Hospitals Association (PHA) Executive Director Abdullah Hindawi said Saturday.

He indicated in a lecture at an investment forum, held simultaneously with the 2015 China-Arab States Expo, that investment in the private hospital sector amounted to JD2 billion.

The medical tourism sector was listed as one of the best five competitive sectors for its fast growth and contribution to the GDP, the PHA chief said, adding that the sector offered more than 30,000 jobs, 95 per cent of which for Jordanians.

He spoke about the advantages of investing in building and operating specialised private hospitals that benefit from the Investment Law, and underlined the increasing demand on medical services from local and international patients.

Hindawi attributed the Kingdom ranking, as the first regionally and fifth in medical tourism internationally, to medical achievements, improvement in medical system and the "high quality" of medical services offered at competitive prices, as well as investing in medical technology and human resources.

AMMAN — Data from the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) showed on Saturday that exports increased by 3 per cent during the first eight months of 2015, despite the decline of sales to traditional markets, particularly Iraq and Syria.

According to ACI statistics,  exports during January-August 2015 reached JD2.75 billion, JD83 million higher than the JD2.67 billion registered during the same period of last year. Exports to the Iraqi market declined by 26 per cent to JD427 million, from JD575 million in the same period of 2014, a drop ACI attributed to border closure.

Despite this regression, Iraq still tops the list of importers on ACI list, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US and India. Sales to Saudi Arabia totalled JD474 million, whereas those to the US and India amounted to JD265 million and JD261 million respectively.

Exports to Egypt went down from JD53 million to JD49 million, and to Libya from JD16 million to JD14 million. Chemical industries and cosmetics topped the list of exports with JD656 million, followed by mining at JD526 million, while exports of the engineering, electric and ICT sector were valued JD337 million during the first eight months of 2015.