Latest news with #RoyalCommitteetoModernizethePoliticalSystem
Ammon
09-07-2025
- Business
- Ammon
Cabinet addresses municipal governance, economic stimulus, and key services
Ammon News - The Cabinet on Wednesday discussed a range of key issues, including municipal governance, economic stimulus measures, and essential health and water services. The meeting follows the dissolution of municipal and provincial councils last Sunday, part of a broader political modernization drive. The Cabinet focused on ensuring the effective performance of municipalities across the Kingdom. Minister of Local Administration Walid Al-Masri briefed the Cabinet on the work of newly formed temporary committees, outlining their mandates and future monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The Cabinet emphasized that these temporary committees must operate in full coordination with relevant bodies to improve municipal services, enhance governance, develop infrastructure, automate services, and complete citizen-centric projects. Continuous evaluation of the committees' work and service quality will be maintained. Discussions also covered next steps to advance legislative reforms governing local administration, aligning with the government's commitment to modernize these laws and streamline municipal operations. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan called for intensified national dialogues on legislative development, ensuring broad participation to achieve high-quality legislation for municipal and provincial councils. These discussions began in early June, focusing on recommendations from the Royal Committee to Modernize the Political System regarding local administration, and are set to continue. To bolster the tourism sector and stimulate economic activity, the Cabinet approved a three-year extension of the special tax exemption on airline tickets for flights departing from King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba. This measure aims to attract more airlines and tourists to Jordan, particularly Aqaba, by reducing flight costs, thereby boosting the tourism sector's contribution to the national economy. In the energy sector, the Cabinet approved the rationale for a draft bylaw governing the establishment, licensing, operation, and maintenance of independent electricity transmission systems. It also covers procedures for establishing and connecting self-generation and storage stations to these systems. This move aligns with the new Public Electricity Law (No. 10 of 2025), published on May 15, 2025, and effective mid-August. The new system is designed to encourage investment and competition in green hydrogen and other economically vital energy projects, consistent with the National Energy Strategy and the Economic Modernization Vision. Furthermore, the Cabinet sanctioned the settlement of 672 outstanding cases between taxpayers and the Income and Sales Tax Department. This reflects the government's ongoing effort to alleviate burdens on economic activities, investors, and citizens, stimulate economic growth, and enhance the business environment. The Cabinet approved measures for transferring land ownership in the Ma'in area to the Jordan Investment Fund, paving the way for the construction of the new Madaba Hospital. This follows Prime Minister Hassan's announcement in March to build a new, advanced government hospital in Madaba, expected to cost an estimated 60 million dinars ($84.6 million), rising to 80 million dinars ($112.8 million) with full equipment. Construction is slated to begin this year and conclude within four years, marking the first such public-private partnership in the sector with KPW Investment and Infrastructure Company. Additionally, the Cabinet endorsed the Medical Committees System for 2025, which aims to regulate the work of medical committees, define their levels and specializations, and establish judicial committees in the northern, central, and southern regions of the Kingdom, not just the capital. These committees will handle disability percentages from traffic and other accidents, easing the burden on citizens. A central appellate judicial committee will also be established in the capital to review appeals against regional judicial committee decisions, ensuring fairness. To advance the National Water Carrier project, a strategic initiative within the Economic Modernization Vision, the Cabinet approved documents from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group. These documents pertain to a guarantee contract and financial/legal instruments for investor companies Eurasia SAS Meridiam and SUEZ International SAS, facilitating the project's construction, operation, and maintenance. The project aims to provide 300 million cubic meters of potable water annually, increasing supplies to all governorates. In the realm of international cooperation, the Cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Jordanian Diplomatic Institute and the Kuwaiti Saud Nasser Al-Sabah Diplomatic Institute. The MoU establishes a framework for developing cooperative activities and offering joint diplomatic training programs, workshops, and executive certificates. This initiative seeks to enhance the expertise and skills of diplomats, provide them with support and guidance, and build knowledge in relevant fields, leveraging Jordan's leadership in diplomatic training.
Jordan News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Jordan News
Why Did Samir Al-Rifai Reopen the File of Independence Now? - Jordan News
Revisiting the issue of independence at this depth is not about reliving the past, but rather issuing a warning about the future. It's a strategic attempt to re-engineer national discourse—one that starts from foundational principles rather than reactive impulses. A nation that forgets its origin often loses its sense of direction. اضافة اعلان When a former prime minister like Samir Al-Rifai, a central figure in Jordan's political reform scene, reopens the file of independence—not as a relic of the past but as a vision for the future—it is neither coincidental nor ceremonial. It is a calculated political act, made in a sensitive moment, aimed at reordering national consciousness amid mounting internal and external pressures. For many, the independence file was considered complete after the foundational years, a chapter we've celebrated for decades. Today, however, it returns to the forefront—not as mere history, but as a contemporary issue deeply tied to the future of the state and the meaning of sovereignty in a region gripped by instability. Al-Rifai, known for chairing the Royal Committee to Modernize the Political System, understands that reopening the independence file is not a repetition of tired rhetoric. Rather, it is a reaffirmation that political independence is inseparable from internal reform. When political performance becomes questionable, national identity is contested, and public space is saturated with contradictory narratives, there is a need to return to foundational concepts—not as preserved slogans, but as new starting points. In this context, independence is no longer just a memory—it becomes a pressing question: To what extent do Jordanians still feel like genuine partners in the independent state their forefathers built? The timing of reopening this file is also intentional. The region is in upheaval. Global powers are redrawing maps of influence. Around Jordan, state models are collapsing under internal conflicts or foreign interference. National identities are disintegrating into sectarian, ethnic, or political divisions. In such an environment, reaffirming independence becomes a defensive measure against the slow erosion of the nation-state—and an opportunity to emphasize Jordan's unity and resilience in an unrelenting regional storm. We cannot ignore today's logic of dominance. It no longer relies solely on traditional warfare but also manifests through economic pressures, conditional aid, and foreign influence on domestic policies. In such a climate, the idea of independence transcends historical celebration—it becomes a moral and political stance, one that must be defended, revived in public debate, and linked to any reform that aims to be serious, not superficial. Thus, we must resist reducing independence to an annual ritual. Instead, we should revive its true meaning, tie it directly to the country's present-day challenges, and shield it from becoming an empty protocol. Independence isn't merely a document signed long ago—it is an ongoing struggle against the erosion of national will, and a continuous evolution in the relationship between authority and society. Do not leave the story of national identity and independence to foreign narratives or to a tired popular memory. Reconstruct it in the spirit of this era. Connect it to today's challenges. Instill it in the consciousness of future generations. Jordan, which has stood politically and securely for a century, is not immune to the dangers that toppled others—unless it invests in the awareness of its people and their commitment to their national identity.
