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General

Foreign ministry condemns terror attack in Pakistan’s Karachi

Amman: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the terror attack that targeted a security compound in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday, resulting in a number of casualties and injuries.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry affirmed the Kingdom’s solidarity with the Pakistani government and people and its rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism.

The ministry also expressed sincere condolences and sympathy to the victims’ families, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Categories
Technology

UK Plymouth University delegation visits National Agricultural Research Center

Baqa’a: Director General of the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), Nizar Haddad, on Saturday received a delegation from the UK Plymouth University.

In the meeting, Haddad stressed the importance of enhancing cooperation and partnerships with various academic institutions.

Haddad underlined the importance of thid visit, which will have a key role in implementing joint projects and exchanging scientific expertise between the two parties and reflect positively on the development of scientific research to achieve comprehensive agricultural development.

The UK academic delegation included Head of School of Biological and Marine Sciences, Professor Richard Preziosi and Associate Professor in Ecological Genetics, Dr Jennifer Rowntree.

The delegation toured NARC’s various departments and laboratories, and commended its scientific and research capabilities and infrastructure, which is a catalyst for building partnership with the university and exchanging expertise and visits.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Categories
Government Policy

FM holds talks with counterparts, officials participating in Munich Security Conference

Munich: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Safadi, on Saturday held talks with a number of his counterparts and officials participating in the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

Talks covered bilateral ties and regional issues, including the Palestinian cause.

Safadi said the international community must act immediately and effectively to stop the illegal and provocative Israeli measures that undermine the two-state solution and threaten to explode the situation in the occupied Palestine.

In meetings held with 17 foreign ministers and officials participating in the MSC, Safadi underlined that these measures, which include settlements, house demolitions, displacing Palestinians from their homes, and attempts to change the historical and legal status of Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied Jerusalem, and economic restrictions against the Palestinian people, undermine the two-state solution, lead to losing confidence in the feasibility of the peace process, and push for an outbreak of violence, ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which coincides this year with Christian and Jewish religious holidays.

Safadi said that the just, lasting and comprehensive peace, for which the Kingdom and all Arab countries are working, is a strategic choice, and a necessity for regional and international security and stability and it won’t be achieved without establishing an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with occupied Jerusalem as its capital on the pre-June 4, 1967, to live in peace and security alongside Israel.

The foreign minister and his counterparts discussed steps that must be taken and the Kingdom’s efforts in cooperation with the Arab countries and the international community to stop the deterioration in the occupied Palestinian territories and to find a political horizon to return to serious and effective negotiations and reach the two-state solution, which is the only way to end the conflict and achieve security, stability and peace.

Safadi said it’s impossible to accept the current situation in Syria, according to the crisis management approach. He called for intensifying efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis that guarantees Syria’s unity and cohesion, restores its security, stability and role, meets the aspirations of the Syrian people, rids it of terrorism, leads to the exit of foreign forces from it and creates conditions for the voluntary return of refugees.

He also called for delivering relief and humanitarian aid to all the Syrian people who were affected by the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey, and supporting the two countries in responding to the consequences of this disaster.

Safadi warned of the difficult humanitarian and social repercussions of the decline in international support for refugees, for whom providing a decent and dignified life constitutes an international responsibility that should not be borne by host countries alone.

In his meetings with his counterparts, Safadi also discussed bilateral relations, and ways to develop them, especially in economic, investment fields, security and defense fields.

Safadi also briefed his counterparts on the political, economic and administrative reform and modernization programs and the steps Jordan has taken to improve economic performance and deal with the repercussions of regional crises.

The foreign minister met wit Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Michael Martin, Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, Sweden Foreign Minister Tobias Billstr?m, Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Union European and Spanish Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, Finnish Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, Estonia Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and and State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Niels Annen.

Safadi also met with Democratic Senator, member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Appropriations Committee in the US Senate, Chris Van Hollen, President of Global Affairs at Goldman Sachs, Jared Cohen, CEO of American Jewish Committee (AJC), Theodore Eliot Deutch, and a delegation from The Elders group, which included former Colombian President Juan Santos, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland and former Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia.

The foreign minister will continue his meetings on the sidelines of the MSC on Sunday, and will participate in a dialogue session on the Middle East, in which the Norwegian Foreign Minister and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will also participate and will be moderated by the International Affairs Director of the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Safadi is scheduled to hold talks Saturday evening with the President of Iraq Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, focusing on increasing cooperation in various fields.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Categories
Business & Finance

JFDZ investments at JD2.2bln to end of 2022-Data

Amman: Jordan Free and Development Zones Group (JFDZ) investments are estimated at a value of JD2.280 billion by the end of 2022, while volume of its export-import trade amounted to about JD4.5 billion.

According to the group’s data obtained by “Petra,” JFDZ trade movement show that exports amounted to JD2, 230 billion, while imports amounted to JD2, 260 billion.

A total of 3, 000 people invest in JFDZ businesses working in the trade sectors, and industry and services, employing about 29,000 workers, while its total investment contracts stand at 2,830, the figures revealed.

Meanwhile, revenues generated as customs and vehicle licensing fees in 2022 were estimated at about JD400 million, data indicated.

Based on axes of the group’s strategy 2022-2024 and its action programs, a number of developments were made in various levels, in terms of improving infrastructure services and launching “vital” projects in the free estates.

In this regard, a water desalination plant was established in Zarqa Free Zone (ZFZ), as well as a rainwater drainage channel, a solar energy project for buildings, development of a safe retail system. In addition, new 16 warehouses were launched within Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) free zone, 175 square meters each to meet the increasing investors’ demand.

In terms of information technology aspect, a number of e-services were launched to help investors process transactions remotely with “high quality and accuracy” and measures were taken to enhance security and property safety system at free zones, as work in an advanced video surveillance system was launched, at a cost of about JD850,000.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Categories
Business & Finance

JBA, Sweden envoy talk economic, investment ties

Amman: The head and members of the Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA) Saturday discussed with Sweden’s Ambassador Alexandra Rydmark prospects for forging closer economic, trade and investment relations between the business communities in both countries.

JBA President Hamdi Tabbaa briefed the envoy on efforts to promote key investment opportunities in promising economic sectors in Jordan, stressing its keen interest in promoting Jordan’s foreign relations, and noting the establishment of a Jordanian-Swedish business council on the sidelines of the King of Sweden’s visit to Jordan in November.

Tabbaa spoke of the importance of work programs to follow up on the outcome of the royal visit to raise the volume of trade between the two sides, which is still “modest”, and promote joint investments.

For her part, Rydmark emphasized the need for executive work programs, particularly after the establishment of a joint business council, urging the two sides to arrange mutual visits in the middle of the year, especially the pharmaceutical and medical care industries and communications and information technology sector.

She agreed that the volume of bilateral trade is still modest and needs more work as Jordan does not import directly from Sweden, but through regional countries, noting that the Swedish side lacked information about Jordan, urging networking between the business communities.

Marcus Petersson, Swedish Trade Commissioner for Business, referred to the “successful” visit of the Swedish Monarch, pointing out that Jordanian companies importing from Sweden have remarkably increased, which is a “positive indicator”.

The volume of trade between the two countries in 2021 was about $82.3 million, of which $6.3 million in Jordanian exports, mainly vegetables, foodstuffs and chemicals, while imports from Sweden were at $76 million, mostly pharmaceuticals, machinery and wood products.

Source: Jordan News Agency