Khaberni - The head of the Greater Salt Municipality Committee, Ali Bataineh, announced on Tuesday that the city of Salt has won the final award in the 2025–2026 Global Mayors Challenge organized by the Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York, worth one million U.S. dollars, in addition to technical and financial support extended over two years for the implementation of the project proposed by the municipality.
The Salt Municipality's victory came after extensive competition with more than 630 cities around the world in the initial stage. It qualified for the final round among the top 50 participating cities alongside major global cities like Boston, Barcelona, San Francisco, Seoul, and Kyiv, before being selected as one of 24 winning cities worldwide distinguished for their ability to develop practical solutions that enhance basic services and support local development ensuring the transformation of the idea into an applicable business model with a sustainable developmental impact in the city.
Bataineh affirmed that this victory represents a national achievement reflecting the ability of Jordanian municipalities to compete globally and present quality initiatives that contribute to supporting the local economy and improving service levels, noting that the upcoming phase would focus on translating the project into integrated implementation steps in cooperation with partners and international experts.
On his part, the Minister of Local Administration, Walid Al-Masri, praised the Greater Salt Municipality team's role in this achievement and excellence on an international level, saying, "this is credited to the always outstanding Greater Salt Municipality and it deserves support to achieve sustainable development and quality service in municipal work, which we aim to elevate from conventional service to a model for building and developing the local community and harnessing youth energies."
Al-Masri expressed hope that the Salt Municipality's experience would serve as a model for other municipalities in the kingdom in achieving excellence and competing for international awards, achieving distinctive accomplishments that enhance the presence of Jordanian cities on the international stage.
The Director of Development Projects Unit and the head of the participation file preparation team, Ghaida Al-Kharabsheh, stated that this achievement resulted from an intense institutional workstream and precise development of the project idea according to the best international standards, adding that the project is based on developing an integrated system to preserve the architectural and cultural heritage of Salt city and employing it as a productive sector that contributes to supporting the local economy and creating job opportunities.
She indicated that, based on the development of this system, the project would contribute to establishing the first specialized center in the field of heritage building restoration along with building a national and international cooperation network that supports the heritage sector and ensures its sustainability, enhancing Salt's position as a leading city in preserving the architectural heritage and employing it for developmental purposes.
The founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., and three-term mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg said, "The most effective municipalities are those that exhibit boldness, creativity, and initiative in solving problems and meeting the needs of residents, and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more cities succeed. We look forward to supporting the twenty-four winners this year in implementing their innovative projects and hope their ideas will spread to other cities around the world."
The Bloomberg Award is among the prestigious global awards aimed at stimulating government innovation at the local level and highlighting the pivotal role played by municipalities around the world in developing services and improving the quality of life for residents.
