Day: 22 November 2023

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to convene its monthly session on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

During the session, Council members will receive comprehensive briefings from UN officials on the recent Israeli aggression against Gaza and the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Strip.

Additionally, the discussions will encompass developments in the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem, settlements, and settler violence.

Since the seventh of last month, the Council has convened approximately 10 sessions. During one of these meetings, it called for “humanitarian truces” and urged the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged population in Gaza.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), in cooperation with Royal Jordanian, hosted a tourist delegation from the Kurdistan region of Iraq on Wednesday, including a number of tourism and travel agents and tour operators.

The JTB organized a tour for the delegation to various tourist locations and sites in the Kingdom. The delegation also visited some hospitals and health centers.

The visit concluded with a workshop attended by 18 representatives from Jordanian tourism offices, hotels, and hospitals.

Members of the delegation expressed their satisfaction with the week-long visit, stressing that Jordan offers a unique and diverse tourism product that is appealing to both Iraqi and Arab tourists.

This visit is a reflection of the JTB and Royal Jordanian’s continued cooperation in the Arab markets.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The projected total public debt for 2024 is expected to reach JD33.534 billion, or 88.3 percent of GDP, a decrease from 2023’s 88.7 percent of GDP, Finance Minister Mohamad Al-Ississ, said on Wednesday.

Next year’s public debt service will total JD1.980 billion, Al-Ississ said in a meeting with economic journalists and columnists.

The total amount of funding sources for the upcoming year, Al-Ississ added, will reach JD7.499 billion, and will be broken down into JD39 million from external loans and capital projects finance, and JD1.660 billion in loans from international institutions to support the budget. To meet the budget shortfall, the government will issue JD648 million in local bonds denominated in U.S. dollars and JD5,150 million as internal loans to extinguish the outstanding debt, resulting in a net public debt of around 2.069 billion dinars next year. In order to close the budget deficit, the government will therefore have net public debt of around JD2.069 billion in 2024.

According to Al-Ississ,
Eurobonds will mature in 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030 rather than next year. The government has not yet decided whether it will issue Eurobonds to meet some of its external needs. The worldwide market is being monitored daily, and the decision will be made based on factors that contribute to lowering debt servicing costs.

The draft budget for next year predicts that global GDP will continue to stagnate due to anti-inflationary policies until the US Federal Reserve begins to lower interest rates on the dollar, Al-Ississ explained. The draft budget also anticipates that the regional situation will remain unchanged without further escalation.

The Jordanian economy has been able to withstand regional crises in recent years, including the influx of refugees into the Kingdom and the stoppage of Egyptian gas, which had a significant economic impact, and it is now able to overcome the current crisis, the minister emphasized.

According to the Finance Minister, foreign grants for next year will total JD724 milli
on, including a grant of JD599 million from the United States of America, a Gulf grant of JD46 million, a European Union grant of JD45 million, and a grant of JD33 million dinars from the Mecca Summit and the UAE.

“Public revenues amount to JD10.303 billion, JD724 million of which constitutes external grants,” he said, dispelling the persistent talk that the Kingdom’s budget is dependent upon grants.

“Throughout the next year, the foreign grant to GDP ratio stays below 1.9 percent,” Al-Ississ further explained. “Thanks to the work of the Ministry’s financial departments, these revenues are self-generated.”

The meeting was attended by Minister of Government Communications and government spokesperson, Muhannad Mubaideen, and the directors of financial departments.

The total revenue forecast for all government units next year is JD852 million, while total expenditures are expected to be JD1.662 billion, said Director General of the General Budget Department, Majdi Al-Shuraiqi.

The government units deficit w
ill be at JD810 million, with the shortfall in the budgets of the Jordan Electric Power Company (JEPCO) and the Water Authority accounting for the full government units deficit of JD852 million, Al-Shuraiqi concluded.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed Mandhari, said Wednesday that the remaining hospitals in the Gaza Strip are under “enormous” pressure and are providing limited emergency services.

Mandhari added, “As health facilities stop working due to the war on Gaza or lack of resources, the organisation’s ability to provide health care to the population diminishes at a time when their needs rise dramatically.”

He explained during a virtual media briefing for the latest regional developments regarding health emergencies in the occupied Palestinian territories and Sudan that the slowdown in the supply of medicines and supplies, the lack of fuel and safe water, the destruction of infrastructure and the loss of employees closed 27 out of 36 hospitals.

He added that without access to clean water or safe disposal of sewage waste, people living in crowded spaces are more susceptible to disease, adding that the WHO is witnessing an increase in the rates of dis
eases, respiratory infections, jaundice, skin infections and childhood infections, including Measles.

He stated that the WHO documented 178 attacks targeting health facilities in embattled Gaza, killing 553 and injuring 696 others, including 22 deaths and 48 injuries among healthcare workers.

Regarding the truce in the Gaza Strip, Mandhari said, “While we felt a degree of enthusiasm as a result of the sudden announcement of a ceasefire linked to the release of hostages and prisoners, we see that what the people in Gaza and Israel need is a permanent ceasefire,” stressing that the war on Gaza needs a political solution.

WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Richard Pieperkorn, said all the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are out of service and non-functional, adding that the remaining five hospitals that still provide some form of health care cannot be said to be “functional.”

He added that the eight hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip are working under intense pressure.

In respon
se to a question about whether the WHO is working to notify the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding crimes committed in Gaza against patients and health workers, the Director of the Emergency Programme at the Organisation’s Regional Office, Richard Brennan, confirmed, “The World Health Organisation has a system for collecting data about attacks on healthcare facilities, and we have a mandate to do so.

“We report this data regularly, and we condemn all of these attacks, but the organisation does not have a mandate to file a case regarding these violations in the International Criminal Court.”

Regarding the situation in Sudan, Mandhari said Sudan is now facing the “largest” internal displacement crisis in the world, as 6.3 million people have recently been displaced, 12 per cent of the total population since last April 15.

Nearly 1.4 million people went to neighbouring countries as refugees.

He said the WO is concerned about the rapid spread of the cholera outbreak in Sudan, adding that seven state
s have reported suspected cholera cases since the announcement of a cholera outbreak in the Gedaref region on September 26

He confirmed that the organisation is currently supporting a vaccination campaign with the oral cholera vaccine in the states of Gedaref and Gezira, aiming to vaccinate more than 2.2 million people.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The government Wednesday approved the draft public budget law for the fiscal year 2024 ahead of referring it to the parliament.

The Minister of Finance, Muhammad Issis, said the budget is the fourth consecutive budget that does not include a rise in taxes or fees and is the highest capital expenditure in Jordan’s history.

Issis noted that the government raised social protection allocations, adding that the 2014 draft budget would translate the government’s royal directives to enhance progress in implementing the economic modernisation vision.

He explained that the national economy would record “real” growth in 2024 at about 2.6 per cent and nominal growth of 5.1 per cent, noting that the economy would maintain moderate inflation rates, among the lowest in the world.

He added that, when drafting the budget, the government considered the slowdown in global growth due to efforts to reduce inflation and regional developments without specifying what those developments are.

Regarding developments at the level
of public expenditures, he said the government has earmarked financial allocations to support the Jordanian armed forces and security services.

The 2024 draft budget law included public revenues amounting to about JOD10.3 billion, an 8.9 per cent increase as opposed to 2023.

Local revenues would rise to JOD9.6 billion, 10 per cent above their 2023 level, due to an increase in tax revenues of about 10.2 per cent to JOD7.2 billion without imposing additional taxes or a spike in current taxes.

Issis said the government would expand the tax base, combat tax evasion, and improve tax administration, forecasting that reforms would increase income tax revenues by about 20 per cent.

He added that expectations indicate that external grants would reach JOD724 million.

In the draft budget law, the government allocated financial allocations to support strategic food commodities and support gas cylinders, in addition to increasing national aid allocations to enable it to accommodate a “larger” number of families eligi
ble for support.

The draft law provides larger allocations for the public debt, which has increased due to the global rise in interest rates as part of a US policy to curb inflation.

Current expenditures were estimated at JOD10.6 billion and capital expenditures at JOD1.7 billion, bringing the total public spending to JOD12.37 billion.

Capital expenditures increased by about 11.8 per cent as opposed to 2023 to JOD1.729 billion dinars, as allocations for the projects of the economic modernisation vision and the public sector modernisation map constituted 20.2 per cent of the expenditures.

Military and security services projects constituted 16.9 per cent, municipal development programmes and decentralisation projects 18 per cent, while allocations for the remaining projects comprised 45 per cent of the total capital expenditures.

The draft budget has reduced the primary deficit for the fourth year. The government reduced the primary deficit to reach JOD812 million at a rate of 2.1 per cent of the gross dom
estic product, compared to 2.6 per cent in 2023.

Total public debt would decline after excluding the Social Security Investment Fund debts, to 88.3 per cent of GDP, with the percentage continuing to decrease in the coming years to 85.7 per cent by 2026.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Majesty King Abdullah and Egypt President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Wednesday welcomed the humanitarian truce announced in Gaza, according to a royal court statement.

At a meeting held in Cairo, the two leaders stressed the need to maintain intensive action to reach a permanent ceasefire and allow the uninterrupted delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza, in line with the international consensus embodied in the decisions of the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in this regard.

The two leaders stressed their rejection of starvation and collective punishment policies inflicted on the Palestinian people, and their rejection of any attempts to displace Palestinians in Gaza internally or outside the Strip.

King Abdullah and President El Sisi reaffirmed Jordan and Egypt’s full support for the Palestinians, calling on the international community to capitalise on the current truce to deliver relief aid to people in Gaza and alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe there.

His Majesty and th
e Egyptian president stressed that any efforts in pursuit of regional stability must start with launching a political process to reach a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two state-solution, and granting Palestinians their legitimate rights, foremost of which is an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The King stressed the importance of the humanitarian truce in Gaza in supporting efforts to prevent the expansion of the conflict and end the war, commending the role of Egypt and Qatar in reaching the truce.

His Majesty also commended Egypt’s ongoing efforts to increase aid to Gaza, receive injured Palestinians, and evacuate foreign nationals. The King warned of catastrophic ramifications if Israel’s ground operations continue in Gaza or expand into the south.

Additionally, His Majesty warned of the dangerous Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including extremist settler violence, which may lead to a dangerous expansion of the con
flict and chaos in the West Bank.

For his part, President El Sisi expressed keenness on maintaining coordination with Jordan to unify positions amid the current difficult circumstances in the region.

Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan, General Intelligence Department Director Maj. Gen. Ahmad Husni, and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel attended the meeting.

Source: Jordan News Agency