Minister of Municipalities and Urban Planning of the brotherly country, Qatar, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Khalifa Al Thani, reviewed with the Mayor of Amman, Omar Maani the methods of mutual cooperation in the municipal work during the former’s recent visit to Greater Amman Municipality (GAM).
The Mayor ascertained that all the cumulated experience in GAM, especially what invested in Amman Institute for Urban Development and needed in Qatar, will be at their disposal, and that both parties will be keen on exchanging expertise to meet the citizens’ needs in Amman and Dawha.
The Mayor highlighted the strategy adopted by GAM to raise performance, especially upon the annexation of the neighboring municipalities to GAM, a procedure that doubled GAM’s efforts to provide the best services to the citizens and to study the special features of each area within certain criteria, namely, working within the metropolitan comprehensive plan, defining the lands’ utilizations in accordance with the next stage of the plan, as well as supporting the investment activities to meet the Arab and foreign investors demands, all within a clear framework.
On his part, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Khalifa Al Thani, said: “We look forward to enhancing cooperation in (exchanging) experience regarding the municipal work”, he further stressed the importance of the Geographic Information System (GIS) applications which Qatar have been using properly during the last few years, and it was one of the pioneering Gulf countries in this field. But, recently, the use of this system regressed, and he added “We will activate the Qatari GIS again to take advantage of its findings in different sectors and categories dealing with the municipal work”.
He also referred to the importance of cooperation with Amman Institute and GAM and the exchange of experiences between the two countries.
Deputy Director of Amman Institute for Urban Development of GAM, Hania Maraqa, briefed the Qatari delegation on the mechanism of work in the institute in the field of research, studies, and the work methods with GAM and the Kingdom’s municipalities, in addition to some Arab cities.
She said that the institute attracts the foreign expertise needed for GAM development and that of the Jordanian cities; it also focuses on raising awareness among the society to convert citizens from service recipients to decision makers in an institutional context, and also to polarize the Jordanian manpower and talents from abroad to utilize their capabilities in their homeland.
