Economic and Business news

[MARTYR]

With the ongoing economic and business developments in Jordan (and in an attempt to revive this forum), there is a strong need for such a thread to keep us in touch with the realm of economy.

[MARTYR]

Kingdom ranks 25th on WEF index


09 October 2009
Jordan ranked 25th in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Financial Development Report and Index for 2009, according to the WEF.


Jordan's rank is in the middle among the rankings of the 55 world countries whose financial status and development were examined in the report for 2009, published on the WEF's website.


The United Kingdom, Australia and the US topped the rankings while Ukraine, Bangladesh and Venezuela were the lowest ranking countries.


The Financial Development Report and Index, issued by the WEF on Thursday, provides a score and a rank for 55 countries, according to the level of their financial development.


In 25th place, Jordan ranked just under Saudi Arabia and above China, while the Kingdom's overall index score was 3.89, the same as that achieved by Saudi Arabia and slightly more than that of China, which stood at 3.87, according to the WEF report.


The report measures financial development by considering several factors, including institutional environment, business environment and financial stability. Other pillars include banking and non-banking financial services, financial markets and financial access.


In terms of its institutional environment, Jordan ranked 23rd, with its score reaching 4.73, whereas it ranked 37th in terms of its business environment and 50th in terms of its financial stability.


As for its banking financial services, the Kingdom ranked 15th while on its non-banking financial services and its financial markets, it ranked 23rd and 13th respectively. On financial access, it came in 20th place.


In the sub-pillars of commercial and retail access, Jordan ranked 9th, the report indicated.


The WEF report is especially important now, as countries are looking into appropriate steps and mechanisms to overcome the present financial crisis, according to the WEF.


Countries usually consider the factors examined by the report as a means to further their economies, the report explained.


The report emphasised that studies on financial development and growth have generally found that cross-country differences in the levels of financial development explain a considerable portion of the cross-country differences in economic growth rates.


This year's report is the second edition since its inaugural publication last year. Last year, the report included only 52 countries, not including Jordan.

[MARTYR]

way to go jordan !!!!!

[MARTYR]

Amman Stock Exchange:

08 October 2009
AMMAN (JT) - Wednesday's trading value amounted to JD36.8 million spread over 24.7 million shares traded through 13,543 transactions.


The share price index closed at 2,667 points, a drop of 0.52 per cent.


Out of 167 corporations whose shares were traded, prices of 40 companies rose, and those of 94 entities declined.


The top five gainers were Jordan Phosphate Mines by 4.97 per cent, Jordan Vegetable Oil Industries by 4.74 per cent, Enjaz for Development & Multi Projects by 4.73 per cent, International for Medical Investment by 4.70 per cent and Al Amin for Investment by 4.37 per cent.


The top five losers were Awtad for Financial and Real Estate Investment by 5 per cent, Union Investment Corporation by 4.95 per cent, Specialised Investment Compounds by 4.90 per cent, Union Land Development Corporation by 4.90 per cent and Al Faris National Comp for Investment & Export by 4.88 per cent.

[MARTYR]

1,000 Jordanians to be recruited into agricultural sector


09 October 2009
AMMAN - The Ministry of Labour and the Jordan Valley Company on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to recruit more Jordanians to the agricultural sector.


Under the agreement, the company will gradually hire 1,000 Jordanians for the agricultural sector in accordance with the Kingdom's needs, providing workers with JD150 monthly salaries as well as social security, health insurance and transportation.


"The MoU comes in accordance with His Majesty King Abdullah announcing 2009 as the year for agriculture," said Minister of Labour Ghazi Shbeikat at the signing ceremony.


He added that the ministry will be committed to cover the workers' subscription expenses in the Social Security Corporation for five years after recruiting the first batch.


Another MoU was also signed between the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC) and Spanish MAKIBER S.A. Company on Thursday to design and implement a model vocational training centre in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone.


Under the agreement, MAKIBER will assist the VTC in managing the centre to provide top-quality vocational training, said MAKIBER Middle East Manager Philippe Chateau.


"Aqaba is the right place for this project as it is growing and attracting investments," Chateau noted.


"We seek to benefit from the Spanish experience in vocational training," said Shbeikat, adding that the centre must be up to international standards to ensure that graduates remain in high demand.

[MARTYR]

amazing move !!!!!
i wish all the governments in the region would do the same
maybe we'll actually start to depend more on ourselves in food production, and become less dependent on foreign nations for importing food !!!!

[MARTYR]

EC grants Jordan €17M


AMMAN - Minister of Planning & International Cooperation, Suhair Al-Ali, and Head of the European Commission Delegation to Jordan, Ambassador Patrick Renauld, signed on Wednesday in Amman two agreements, totaling €17 million.

The 1st grant agreement of €10 million will be channeled to develop and strengthen the institutional capacities of several public institutions whose work is related to the Kingdom's obligations within Jordanian-European Association Agreement and the joint action plan for the European Neighborhood Policy (phase III of the Implementation of the Euro-Jordanian Association Agreement Program); furthermore it aims to enhance awareness of public institutions on the program and facilitate relevant dialogue and negotiation processes and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the application of public institutions' obligations under the Partnership Agreement in addition to setting common grounds for the legal and regulatory framework of Jordan and its European counterparts.

The program, which will be carried out over a period of four years, targets Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Industry & Trade, General Directorate of Gendarmerie, Jordan Institution for Standards & Metrology, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Department of Statistics, Department of Lands & Survey, Greater Amman Municipality's Community Health Department, Jordan Food & Drug Association and National Energy Research Center.

The 2nd grant of €7 million aims to support the Kingdom's program to promote justice reform and good governance. The 66-month duration program, aims to support the reform of criminal and juvenile justice systems in line with the international standards, support the implementation of anti-corruption strategy and help promote the "Amman Message".

Through this agreement, the Justice Ministry will float a €3.5 million tender to which it will invite all relevant EU government agencies to compete for the implementation of development of criminal justice project, where there will be possible appointment of local and regional experts within the framework of the project. In addition, €300,000 will be used to provide the judiciary with systems and equipment.

Moreover, a total of €625,000 will be earmarked to support the development of a juvenile justice project, which will be implemented in cooperation with UNODC, whose contribution to the project stands at €125,000.

Meanwhile, under the agreement, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will engage in a twinning project with one of the counterpart institutions in the EU, worth €1.5 million, to help implement the anti-corruption strategy.

Part of the fund, valued at €800,000, will be allocated to support Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs in cooperation with the ministries of Education and Culture and other beneficiary institutions to promote the values of the "Amman message". This will be done through awareness-raising and civic-education activities that will include television, radio, lectures and conferences

[MARTYR]

Amman Stock Exchange:

09 October 2009
Thursday's trading value amounted to JD29.5 million spread over 20 million shares traded through 11,893 transactions.


The share price index closed at 2,645 points, a drop of 0.83 per cent.


Out of 163 firms whose shares were traded, prices of 45 companies rose, and those of 90 entities declined.


The top five gainers were Jordan French Insurance by 5 per cent, Jordan Vegetable Oil Industries by 4.98 per cent, Jordan Ceramic Industries by 4.95 per cent, Arab Investors Union for Real Estates Developing by 4.88 per cent and Amad Investment & Real Estate Development by 4.85 per cent.


The top five losers were Rum Group for Transportation & Tourism Investment by 5 per cent, Al Nisr Al Arabi Insurance by 5 per cent, Falcon for Investment & Financial Services by 4.97 per cent, Al Qaria Food and Vegetable Oil Industries by 4.95 per cent and Darkom Investment by 4.95 per cent.

[MARTYR]

Association of Banks in Jordan signs agreement with Palestinian counterpart


08 October 2009
AMMAN (Petra) - The Association of Banks in JordanAssociation of Banks in Jordan on Wednesday signed an agreement with its Palestinian counterpart to build a framework for cooperation between them and foster chances for cooperation between both sides. Under the agreement, the two countries will work to explore appropriate mechanisms to boost economic and financial cooperation and to organise joint banking activities.

The two countries will also exchange their respective publications and studies, in accordance with the agreement.

[MARTYR]

Gov't 'about to lose Sudan investment'



AMMAN - The Sudanese government will take back a plot of land allocated for a Jordanian agricultural megaproject if the government does not implement the project within two weeks, Agriculture Minister Saeed Masri said on Wednesday.


The project was supposed to be implemented by a private company with government support, but last week, Masri announced that the private sector partner had withdrawn from the plan, noting that their decision was made unilaterally without prior notification.


Earlier last year, the government announced a plan to enter into an agreement with a coalition comprising four Jordanian firms that had decided to undertake the Sudan project and benefit from customs exemptions and other incentives provided by the Sudanese government.


But the plan did not materialise after the private sector withdrew, citing the government's failure to fulfil its JD10 million share in the JD60 million project, according to a government official.


In a phone interview with The Jordan Times on Tuesday, Issam Hijazi, CEO of the leading livestock and food importer/manufacturer Hijazi and Ghosheh Group and one of the company founders, confirmed the withdrawal.


The company founders had a firsthand look at the situation of the project in Sudan during a self-initiated, four-day visit that started on August 5, 2008 during which they met with Sudanese officials over the investments and facilities made available by Khartoum.


"The project is quite feasible, but at the time we showed interest in the project, the prices of agricultural food items were at historic highs. Now the prices are almost the same as they were two years ago," Ghosheh said, adding: "Nevertheless, the government was supposed to be a co-investor in the project but now they decided to abandon the partnership."


But Masri stressed that the private sector partner decided to leave the project even before the finance minister's statement that there were no funds allocated for the project in the state budget, adding that he was instructed by Prime Minister Nader Dahabi to go ahead with the investment.


"Now that the private sector has withdrawn from the project, we are in negotiations with the Army-run company Al Bashaer, which is currently farming a total of 39,000 dunums of land adjacent to the project's allocated lands on the banks of the Nile River," he said, stressing that the project's fate is time-sensitive and that it must be implemented before it is too late.


In 1998, the government signed an agricultural protocol with the Sudanese government which entitled Jordan to utilise vast fertile lands on the banks of the Nile to rear livestock and grow crops.


In early 2008, the governor of the Nile River State distributed more than half the land included in the agreement to local farmers in his state as the plan did not materialise a decade after the deal was signed, leaving Jordan with around 87,000 dunums to utilise.


However, due to the government's reluctance to go ahead with the project, the Sudanese government set 2009 as the deadline for the implementation of the agreement, after which the deal would be declared null and void.

[MARTYR]

Aqaba attracts USD 18 billions in investment


The Aqaba special economic zone Authority had remarkably attracted USD 18 billions in investments in hotel, services and industrial projects since its inception in 2001. Aseza chairman Hosni Abu Ghaida said in a lecture at Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) on Tuesday that Aseza through attracting such investments exceeded more than three hundred percent of its strategic goal by attracting investments worth $ 6 billion by 2020.

The total amounts, he pointed, Aseza has deposited in the state treasury amounted to 160 million dinars in eight years. The Government of Jordan has embarked on an aggressive reform strategy to reposition Jordan as a competitive player within the global economy.

A key initiative within in this strategy is the establishment of the Aqaba special economic zone (asez) as a liberalized low tax, duty-free and mulit-sectoral development area. A simplified business environment has been designed with streamlined administrative systems to attract investment and maximize private sector participation.

[MARTYR]

Kuwait will open economic office in Jordan in coming months


AMMAN (Petra) - Kuwait's Ambassador to Jordan Sheikh Feisal Al Hmoud Al Sabah on Monday said Kuwait will open a Kuwaiti economic office in Jordan in the few coming months. The ambassador made the remark during a ceremony held by the Kuwaiti Airlines in honour of its Regional Director Abdul Nasser Bahrami.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hmoud reiterated the strong relations between Jordan and Kuwait. He also commended the services provided by the Kuwaiti Airlines, saying the Kuwaiti national carrier has always been a bridge which has connected Kuwait with other world countries.

[yazm1991]

King, Queen meet US business delegation

AMMAN (JT) - Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania met on Thursday with a group of American business leaders currently on a visit to the Kingdom.

At the meeting, His Majesty reviewed the Kingdom's development programmes in various sectors, stressing that Jordan will proceed with attracting investments and building a knowledge-based economy based on partnership between the public and private sectors to increase growth, a Royal Court statement said.

His Majesty said Jordan is implementing a series of programmes in the fields of transport, water and energy, including nuclear power. The King highlighted efforts to train young people and create jobs for them, as well as support for start-ups in the IT sector in the Kingdom.

On Mideast peace, the King underlined the important role of the US in working to launch serious and effective negotiations to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution and international resolutions, especially the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Earlier in the day, the American delegation visited the King Abdullah II Fund for Development, where they were briefed on its programmes and initiatives.

[MARTYR]

CBJ excess reserves stand at JD3.6 billion


The Central bank of jordan announced that the volume of excess reserves on Thursday, including the overnight window deposits, stood at JD 3.6 billion.

The volume of required reserves amounted to JD1.05 billion, the Bank added.

The bank said that no overnight repurchase agreements (repo) were held with the bank on 9/9/2009.

[MARTYR]

Jordan, Germany seal three financial deals


10 October 2009
AMMAN -- Jordan and Germany signed on Saturday three agreements to finance water and education projects worth a total of USD 18 million.

The amount has been allocated to finance a water resources management project, including a sewage projects in Karak and Kufranjeh, Jordan.

The agreements were sealed by Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali and the Director of the German Bank in Jordan.

Al-Ali told reporters after the signing ceremony that the two sides had reached the agreements in Bonn last November on executing a developmental cooperation program between Jordan and Germany for 2008-09.

The minister hailed the program, pointing to its importance in developing the water sector in the Kingdom, through German technical assistance and financial aid.

Under the agreement, USD 10 million will also go to finance the second phase of a project to build elementary schools in deprived areas.

[MARTYR]

Global-Jordan is number six brokerage company in country


10 October 2009
KUWAIT -- The brokerage company of Global-Jordan came in the sixth place among 68 other brokerage institutions in Jordan, a statement by the company said Saturday.

Global-Jordan established one year and a half ago, achieved transactions of 501 million Jordanian dinars from the beginning of the year 2009 and until the first week of October; therefore, controlling the market by 3.1 percent, the statement issued in Kuwait said.

Last year, the company started providing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Egypt, Palestine, and Tunisia with brokerage services, Director Ashraf Jarrar said.

This showcases the ongoing development of the company which tries to meet to its customers needs, he said.

Global-Jordan which is owned by Kuwaiti brokerage company, Global Investment House with a capital of 15 million Jordanian dinars was launched in Jordan in 2008.

The company's transactions reached 697 million Jordanian dinars which proves that the company is one of the best brokerage companies in Jordan thesedays.

[MARTYR]

Amman Stock Exchange


11 October 2009
AMMAN (JT) - The general index of Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) regressed for the second week in a row affected by falling share prices of most companies in the real estate sector especially those which have recorded substantial gains in the past few weeks.


Despite the strong performance of most heavyweight stocks, the ASE index stood at 2,645.17 points at the end of last week, 0.6 per cent lower than the closing level at the end of the previous week amid a decline in trading volumes.


We anticipate a rising trend for most strategic stocks this week as investors expect positive third quarter corporate results to be released by the end of this month.


Except for the service and industrial sectors, all other indices recorded losses especially the real estate which posted the largest loss as its index fell by 5.1 per cent followed by a 3.8 per cent drop recorded by the diversified financial services sector.


As for trading activity, 111.3 million shares exchanged hands leaving gains at 65 companies and losses at 100 entities out of 187 traded corporations.


In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place accounting for 32.7 per cent of the total followed by the diversified financial services sector with 18.6 per cent and then the industry sector which accounted for 18.6 per cent of total value traded.


The most actively traded shares last week were those of Methaq Real Estate Investments, Ad Dulayl Industrial Park and First Jordan with a combined value traded of JD16.2 million accounting for 10.2 per cent of the total value traded.


Several block deals were executed most important of which were on shares of Amwal Invest, Al Ahlia Enterprises and Investors and Eastern Arab for Industrial and Real Estate Investments with transaction values amounting to JD2.5 million, JD1.7 million and JD0.9 million respectively.


The Jordan Securities Commission (JSC) approved the registration of 11.2 million new shares in the paid-up capital of Emaar Real Estate Development and Investments. The increase will occur through a public placement to the company's existing shareholders at par value.


The JSC board of commissioners approved the registration of 4.2 million new shares in the paid-up capital of General Lightweight Concrete Company. The increase will occur through a public placement to the company's existing shareholders at a price of JD0.85 per share.


The JSC board of commissioners approved the registration of five million new shares in the paid-up capital of Winter Valley Tourism Investment. The increase will occur through a public placement to the company's existing shareholders at par value.


Shares of Al Barakah Takaful resumed trading as of October 8 with a reference price of JD3.40 after the company successfully completed all capital reduction requirements.


Excess reserves at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) totalled JD3.7 billion including overnight deposits in the deposit window as of 7/10/2009.


The Jordanian government announced that the 2010 budget will be scaled down by around JD590 million compared to the current year's budget. The budget for 2010 will stand at JD5.6 billion with an estimated budget deficit of JD685 million after taking into account foreign grants.


According to CBJ data, Jordan's exports to Syria fell by 12 per cent in the first seven months of this year to JD102 million compared with JD116 in the same period last year.


Data issued by the Department of Land and Survey showed that real estate trading in the first nine months of the year amounted to JD3.1 billion, a 38 per cent drop compared to the same period last year.


A report issued by the CBJ revealed that remittances of Jordanian workers abroad fell by 20 per cent in August 2009 compared with the same period last year.

[yazm1991]

Meetings of Joint Jordanian-Palestinian Higher Committee postponed

AMMAN (Petra) - Meetings of the Joint Jordanian-Palestinian Higher Committee, scheduled for Thursday were postponed, upon a request by the Palestinian side, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Nabil Sharif said on Monday. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad telephoned Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and asked that the meetings be postponed due to the pre-occupation of the Palestinian side, Sharif explained. Meanwhile, on Monday, meetings of the joint Jordanian-Palestinian technical and preparatory committees began yesterday, participants focusing on means to boost bilateral cooperation in all fields, especially economic and commercial areas. In 2008, the joint Jordanian-Palestinian commercial exchange volume was less than $90 million while in the first half of this year, it was around $33 million, Ministry of Industry and Trade Secretary General Muntasir Oqla indicated.

[yazm1991]

Jordan Customs Department to help ease flow of Arab and foreign investments

AMMAN (Petra) –– Jordan Customs Department (JCD) Director General Ghaleb Sarayreh on Tuesday stressed that the department will remove any obstacles that restrict the flow of Arab and foreign investments into the Kingdom. Sarayreh said the department will set up one investment window to have unified procedures for investors, noting that the economic situation in Jordan necessitates implementing up-to-date measures to promote investment. He pointed to the strategic plan, designed according to international standards, for upgrading the JCD.

[yazm1991]

JCCA chief sees ‘major’ decline in business activity in 2010

By Khalid Neimat

AMMAN - The construction sector in 2010 will be marked by a major decline compared to its performance in the past three years, Jordan Construction Contractors Association (JCCA) President Derrar Sraireh told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

Noting that the construction and contracting sector is behind 80-90 per cent of business in other sectors in the Kingdom, Sraireh expected many indicators to fall next year, due to the proposed reduction in government expenditures.

Since the beginning of the international financial crisis in 2008, “most governments across the world took measures to stimulate capital expenditures as a tool to encourage economic activity”, he said, noting that in Jordan “our government takes the opposite path”.

According to a recent survey by the Department of Statistics (DoS), the number of construction firms reached 1,749 increasing from the 1,590 in 2006.

The survey also showed that the number of employees in the sector during 2007 increased to 36,149 from 28,007 in 2006.

Added value of the construction sector to the national economy went up from JD233.4 million in 2006 to JD333.6 million in 2007, the DoS indicated.

The economic editor at a local Arabic daily pointed that the government has failed to pay due amounts of JD56 million to the construction sector and JD50 million to pharmaceutical sector besides also avoiding payment of tax refunds to beneficiaries.

The editor mentioned a major decline in the Kingdom’s exports, particularly from the Qualified Industrial Zones and a slowdown in real estate activities to conclude that the 2010 will be “a difficult year” for most economic sectors in the Kingdom.

Economist Fahed Fanek affirmed that the government has taken a “correct decision” after it decided to freeze new capital expenditures as a precautionary measure to reduce the state budget deficit for 2010.

“This decision excluded the ongoing capital projects and the ones that receive foreign funding”, Fanek said.

“I am against linking the economic growth to government spending,” he added, noting that the private sector will now have the chance to fill the gap and benefit from the government withdrawal from the investment map.