AMMAN (JT) — Jordan today marks His Majesty King Abdullah's 44th birthday.
In the last 12 months, King Abdullah tackled new as well as existing challenges posed domestically, regionally and internationally.
He began 2005 with two major national initiatives to set the country on a solid path of reforms, socio-economic progress and political development.
The National Agenda and the Regions Development Plan are today before the government. The agenda is to set guidelines for the country's advancement in the social, economic and political arenas for the next decade, while the plan is to bring national projects to the grass roots.
Repeatedly, again, the King emphasised that alleviation of poverty and reduction of unemployment were key to setting the country on the road to reform.
To that end, he urged finding solutions to improve the efficiency and provision of the country's energy needs, particularly in light of the increase in energy costs.
The King also took particular note of the economic hardships of many of the country's retired security personnel from the army, police, intelligence and civil defence branches. In June, he directed the government to allocate a percentage of shares in companies set for privatisation and offer these shares for sale to both acting personnel and retirees from these forces.
King Abdullah said a national priority is to engage citizens in an active and productive partnership so that justice and equality are ensured to all Jordanians. He said this was the standard the government must rely on.
This past year too, King Abdullah hit hard at the pervasive ills of corruption, wasta and religious extremism.
The King ordered the government to draft a law to combat corruption and stamp out nepotism as one essential measure of reform.
He called on the country's school system to stand firm in its role to combat extremism and intolerance, both products of ignorance.
His endeavours in this arena took on more poignancy as Jordan suffered two terrorist attacks: The missile attack in Aqaba and the November 9 bombings of three hotels in the capital which killed 60 people.
Focus was also placed on improving the quality of education in continuation of Jordan Education Initiative. By the end of 2005, the number of PCs supplied to public schools rose to 80,000, up by 15,000 from the previous year. These schools are linked via a network with Queen Rania IT Centre. Nowadays, more than 2,000 out of the total 5,500 state-run schools in the Kingdom benefit from the IT programme initiated by King Abdullah.
Jordan counts 1.5 million school and university students, accounting for 25 per cent of the population. There are now 23 public and private universities in Jordan. In February, the King launched the 2005-2009 National Strategy for Youth prepared by the Higher Council for Youth to address key challenges facing the younger generation and shape a better future for them. He also inaugurated the first phase of the permanent campus of the state-run Al Hussein Ben Talal University in Maan, which is to play a key role in developing this southern governorate. In addition, the King inaugurated the German Jordanian University of Applied Sciences. The year also brought the conversion of Tafileh Community College into a full-fledged applied sciences university.
In the economic sphere, Jordan achieved a growth rate of 7.5 per cent while national exports rose by 12.2 per cent. The US was the main importer, with a value of purchases exceeding $1 billion, followed by Iraq and India.
By the end of 2005, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone attracted $2 billion in investments, mostly in real estate and tourism. With this figure, the zone achieved in five years a third of the volume of foreign investments envisioned to land in the area by 2020.
Also last year, Jordan hosted for the third consecutive year the World Economic Forum meetings at the Dead Sea, which was also inaugurated by the King. During that same month of May, the King inaugurated in Petra a forum for Nobel laureates and key world figures debated from their points of expertise recommendations to provide hope to the world's poor and oppressed.
On the regional and international fronts, King Abdullah maintained close contact with key political, business, academic and religious figures in the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas to continue to promote peace, security and opportunities for progress and prosperity.
Jordan's contributions to world peace were highlighted in the past year as it rose to the second place ranking internationally in terms of the size of its troops participating in UN peacekeeping missions around the world.
Monday, January 30, 2006
And now, the end is near;
