The Greater Amman Municipality ( GAM ) has recently taken a decision to freeze the plan of moving vocational workshops and factories from their current locations in the south of the Capital to a new location, until the such time when the issue is thoroughly studied with the Jordan Chamber of Industry, which was scheduled to take place in the beginning of the current year.
The Mayor, Omar Maani, has, in a meeting with some industrialists Friday evening, agreed to formulate a joint committee comprising representatives of GAM, and the Jordan Chamber of Industry, with the aim of institutionalizing the relations between the two parties, and treating the issues of concern to the industrial sector, which eventually serves the public interest.
Maani said that GAM shall not spare any effort to support and serve the national economy, noting that he personally will continually follow up on the requests and demands of the industrialists.
In the meeting, Maani promised to study the requests and demands raised by the industrialists, and to eventually respond to them, thus serving the industrial sector and the national economy.
On his part, member of Amman Chamber of Industry, Sa’ad Yaseen presented a paper to the meeting attended by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Engineer “Amer Al Hadeedi, including the industrialists demands and the issues related to the industrial activities within the jurisdiction of GAM.
The paper outlined the that the industrialists are incapable of rectifying the status of the industrial facilities set up in accordance with the municipalities laws passed before the annexation resolution in March 2007. Such move would charge them with fines stipulated by the application of GAM laws as to the rules governing retaining spaces, violating buildings, parking areas, and organization returns.
In as far as opening new streets and expanding others are concerned, which cause some damage to the factories and charge GAM with sizeable remunerations, the industrialists called for cancelling some streets , and reducing the capacity of others to minimize the damage caused by setting up new streets or expanding others at the expense of the factories.
They further added that the criteria for industrial spills over and the mechanism for applying them are not clear, delineating the utmost importance of providing the Jordan Chamber of Industry with these criteria and the mechanism of application to circulate them to the concerned industrialists.
The industry sector representatives stressed on the importance of issuing resolutions regarding vocational licensing in accordance with Vocational Licensing Law for the year 1999, and, for that matter, to study the possibility of renewing licenses for one to five years.
They requested that the authority of the GAM office at Amman Chamber of Industry be expanded to enable it issue the necessary licenses to all the factories in the new industrial zones.
They stressed that it is extremely necessary that the ministries, the governmental institutions, the independent establishments, the municipalities, and GAM grant the local industry the priority of purchasing their productions to maximize opportunities of sustainability in the local market.
On his part, the President of the Jordan and Amman Chambers of Industry, Dr. Hatem Al Halawani valued GAM response to the demands of the industrialists, and studying any proposals leading towards serving the industrial sector, calling, at the same time, to forge an institutional partnership between GAM and the industrial sector through a joint committee.
