Khaberni - The Cabinet, in its session which was held on Sunday with Prime Minister Jafar Hassan presiding, discussed the current situation of municipal work, governance mechanisms for the Cities and Villages Development Bank, and enhancing its performance, in an effort to improve the level of municipal services provided to citizens and maintain them with high quality.
In this regard, the Cabinet decided to approve the recommendations of the Board of Directors of the Cities and Villages Development Bank, which include a plan for restructuring the municipalities' debt to the bank, aimed at enabling them to repay the bank's debts and relieve their financial burdens, and improving the services provided to citizens on one hand, and strengthening the financial position of the Cities and Villages Development Bank and ensuring its cash flows, on the other hand, to provide liquidity for emergency situations for municipalities.
The restructuring plan for the municipalities' debt includes scheduling accumulated debt over years, enabling the repayment of loan principals, and exempting them from a total amount of 170 million dinars that had accrued as interests which were essentially not being paid, in addition to reducing the interest rates from 7.5% gradually depending on the age of the schedule to range only between 0.5% to 2%; thus enabling the municipalities to repay their debt and enhance their ability to provide services to citizens.
The plan requires municipalities to provide a comprehensive financial reform plan including clear measures to reduce expenses and improve revenues, and a decision by the municipal council approving the scheduling for financially distressed municipalities; to ensure the sustainability of this plan and commitment to it; contributing to improving the work reality of municipalities in the long term, and improving their financial performance to enable them to enhance their services.
The financial scheduling plan would set municipalities on the right path in terms of improving their financial revenues and enabling them to control their expenses, as well as improving the financial performance of the Cities and Villages Development Bank, governing its operations, and providing the necessary liquidity for its essential municipal work.
On a related note, the Cabinet listened to a briefing by the Minister of Local Administration, Walid Al-Masri, about the reality of work of the municipal committees that were formed following the dissolution of the municipal councils at the beginning of July last year.
Al-Masri affirmed that during the past period, the municipal committees were able to achieve qualitative progress on four levels: environmental performance (cleanliness), financial performance, administrative performance, and services, according to a field survey conducted to evaluate the work of the committees.
On the front of systems related to supporting the tourism sector, the Cabinet approved the Jordanian Tourism and Travel Offices and Companies System for the year 2025.
The system aims to encourage investment in the tourism sector and simplify the procedures and requirements for classifying Jordanian tourism and travel offices and companies, and reduce the financial guarantees required from some categories of offices, and cancel the license issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The system specifies the categories of offices and the conditions for their classification and the services they provide and the obligations incumbent on them according to their classification category.
The Cabinet also approved the Tourist Guides Services System for the year 2025; for the purposes of regulating the practice of tourist guide services and determining the conditions related to its practice, as well as specifying the classification categories of tourist guides and the conditions for obtaining classification for each tourist guide.
The system also specifies the obligations incumbent on the tourist guide when practicing his profession, and cases of granting temporary permits.
In the context of financial governance for the work of universities, the Cabinet approved the Reward and Saving Fund System for the employees at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University for the year 2025.
The system comes for the purposes of merging the legal provisions related to the reward and saving for the employees at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University into one system, and unifying these legal provisions at the university and aligning them with the legislations in force at other official Jordanian universities.
In the context of international cooperation, the Cabinet decided to approve the Kingdom’s accession to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, in accordance with local laws and regulations.
The convention aims to ensure the optimal use of surface and underground waters among countries, and to enhance international cooperation in the fields of monitoring, information exchange, research and development, environmental damage prevention, and addressing water challenges.
The Cabinet also approved a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Social Development and the Helping Hand Relief Association.
The agreement aims to implement social, humanitarian, and developmental programs, and to enhance cooperation and exchange of expertise in these fields.
On another front, the Cabinet decided to appoint Waseem Mohammad Rashad Al-Haddad as the General Manager of the Cities and Villages Development Bank, after he achieved the highest evaluation scores in the competition conducted under the government leadership system.
