Day: May 8, 2022

Prime Minister, Bishr Khasawneh, on Saturday condemned the terrorist attack that targeted a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal, northern Egypt, and claimed the life of a number of Egyptian army personnel and and injured others.

In a phone call he made with his Egyptian counterpart, Mustafa Madbouly on Saturday evening, Khasawneh voiced Jordan’s strong condemnation of the cowardly terrorist attack that targeted a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal and killed and injured of a number of Egyptian soldiers.

Khasawneh underlined Jordan’s solidarity and unwavering support to Egypt and its efforts to confront terrorism and extremism.

He expressed his deepest condolences to the government and people of Egypt and the families of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

Temperatures on Sunday are forecast to rise slightly while remaining below their seasonal average, bringing pleasant spring conditions in the mountains and moderate weather in the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Aqaba, the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) said in its daily update.

Clouds will appear at medium and high altitudes, with northwesterly moderate winds.

On Monday, temperatures will continue to rise and the weather will be warm almost countywide and relatively hot in the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Aqaba, with southwesterly moderate dust-causing winds in the Badia regions.

Similar weather will persist on Tuesday, with high-altitude clouds and northwesterly moderate to brisk winds.

Today, mercury in Amman will range between 23 degrees Celsius and 11C at night, while the port city of Aqaba will see a high of 32C, sliding to 20C during night hours.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

China’s gold reserves stood at 62.64 million ounces at the end of April, unchanged from that at the end of March, the country’s central bank data showed late Saturday.

Official data also showed that China’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $3.1197 trillion at the end of April, down $68.3 billion, or 2.14 percent, from the end of March.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

The leadership team of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) and a delegation of Indian fertilizer manufacturers on Sunday discussed prospects of joint cooperation in the area of supplying and manufacturing phosphate fertilizers.

The company’s board chairman, Muhammad Thneibat, said that cooperation between the company and Indian manufacturers is well established, especially in terms of supplying raw phosphates and manufacturing fertilizers.

Thneibat indicated that the JPMC’s exports of fertilizers and raw phosphates to India last year amounted to about 3 million tons, noting that the company achieved, during the past years, unprecedented savings and profits, accompanied by a reduction in production and mining costs.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yousef Shamali and Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture Marcos Montes on Sunday discussed means of boosting economic cooperation and trade exchange and enhancing the private sectors in the two countries.

Trade exchange between Jordan and Brazil in 2021 amounted to some $419 million, up by 190 percent compared to 2020. Imports from Brazil stood at $292 million, while exports to the Brazilian market were at $126 million.

During their meeting, Shamali stressed Jordan’s commitment to advancing two-way trade, which, he said, has witnessed growth in recent years but “is still substandard.” He said there are many Jordanian products that the Brazilian market could benefit from, such as fertilizers, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The minister called on the Brazilian private sector and businessmen to leverage investment opportunities in Jordan, which has several advantages including access to the biggest global markets, reaching more than one billion consumers under bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements, as well as the Kingdom’s strategic location in the region.

The Brazilian minister expressed interest in expanding economic cooperation with Jordan and leveraging the strong relation with Jordan in many fields.

Montes underlined his country’s commitment to increasing imports from Jordan, namely fertilizers, after Brazil’s agriculture sector developed and the agricultural production quantities increased to enhance food security. He also indicated that Jordanian fertilizers are of high quality and have been commended by Brazilian farmers.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

Bringing together musicians and music educators from vulnerable communities in Jordan through music, Oskar Wustinger, Austrian ambassador to Jordan, hosted on Saturday a concert in Amman of the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir.

The Vienna Boys Choir, which is originally based in Vienna (Austria) has a long tradition. It is one of the most known choirs in the world and has a history of educating children for more than 500 years.

Complementing their musical achievements, the young singers in the Choir also make important social contributions through outreach and philanthropy projects, such as the “Music for Hope” project in Jordan.

“Music for Hope” is co-funded by the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior. The co-operation project between the Vienna Boys Choir and Caritas Jordan was launched in March 2021 and since then has played an instrumental role in elevating music within the school systems.

The project combines training for music educators as well as educational training for refugee communities to further their musical capacities. For the past year, both Syrian and Iraqi refugee children have received continuous music education, while their parents benefitted from workshops highlighting the importance of music for children’s development.

Providing refugees and vulnerable communities in Jordan with access to music and music education should not only enhance their well-being but also aim at creating attractive job opportunities for musicians and music teachers in Jordan in the long term. During the opening, Ambassador Wustinger said: “Music is very close to our Austrian hearts. I am personally extremely happy to see this project bringing together Jordanians, refugees and Austrians through music”.

The next phase of the Music for Hope project aims to establish a Music Academy that can become a leading institution for music training in Jordan and the region.

At the concert, the President of the Vienna Boys Choir, Wirth said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project. Music is a powerful tool, it is the language of emotions, the language that connects us all: Children understand that instinctively; they connect.” He further continued: “Children are our future, and it is crucial that they have the tools to work together as a team, like a choir as it were, in building a global society. This is what “Music for Hope” is all about.”

The event was attended by the Minister of Social Development Ayman Riad Saeid Almuflih and invited guests. A free concert is taking place on the 08.05.2022 at 4 p.m. at Al Hussein Culture Center and will be open to all interested.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania Al Abdullah will Monday receive the “Path to Peace Award” in New York, during His Majesty’s working visit to the United States.

The award, presented by the Path to Peace Foundation affiliated with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, comes in appreciation of Their Majesties’ role in promoting interfaith harmony and dialogue, as well as bolstering prospects for peace, and Jordan’s humanitarian efforts to host refugees.

Also in New York, King Abdullah is scheduled to meet with the Jordanian American Physicians executive board and a number of distinguished Jordanian doctors in the United States, out of His Majesty’s keenness to reach out to Jordanian expatriates and hear about their achievements and suggestions.

The King will also meet with a number of Christian leaders in the United States to reaffirm the importance of safeguarding the Christian presence in the Middle East and protect Arab Christians’ rights in the holy land.

From New York, His Majesty heads to Washington to continue the working visit, which started on Friday.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has restored the momentum to the mineral resources sector by signing several memoranda of understanding (MoU) to kick off an exploration drive by focusing on manufacturing industries, due to their added value to the national economy, expansion of job opportunities and improvement of the local communities’ living standards.

In a statement to “Petra,” on Sunday, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh said the ministry would soon sign two MoUs to explore copper and gold within the framework of its interest in giving the mineral sector its right and making it a priority, in implementation of the Royal directives in this regard.

This projected effort, he said, would increase the mineral sector’s contribution to the GDP, create job opportunities and raise the level of direly needed income in the target regions.

In this regard, Kharabsheh said the ministry is currently focusing efforts on manufacturing industries for the mining sector to best exploit its potentials, expand job opportunities and improve the local communities’ living standards, adding such projects would serve their surrounding areas.

To this end, the ministry launched, he noted, a platform to facilitate the investors’ procedures in the mineral sector.

The platform came within the second batch of government accelerators and the ministry’s belief in the importance of increasing investment in the mineral field and improving the services level online, he pointed out.

The platform, he said, aims to network the concerned authorities to reduce time and burden needed to complete the investors’ transactions.

In addition, he noted these e-platforms are the beginning to launching and improving comprehensive services in various sectors to stimulate mineral investments by aligning with the investors’ requirements and needs and attracting more investment opportunities in this important sector, according to the minister.

In December 2021, Kharabsheh launched a project to explore phosphate ore in Al-Ruwaished area.

In January 2022, the ministry signed a MoU to explore “rare and strategic” minerals in Dibedeeb region in the Kingdom’s south, which includes 17 assets, in addition to lithium.

This effort came following the ministry’s 2-year exploration for these minerals, based on preliminary indications of reservoirs in good quantities and due to their use into advanced industries, a ministry statement said.

Last April, the ministry signed a MoU with the Turkish company Solvest to explore and prospect for copper ores and associated minerals in southern Abu Khashiba and Ghor Fifa regions, as studies showed the presence of copper ores in good quantities and concentrations, the ministry added.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY