Jordan Times
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
King to visit Germany for talks with Schroeder
By Francesca Sawalha
AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah is expected to visit Germany on Oct. 11-12 for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on international and regional developments following last month's terror attacks in the US, bilateral ties and efforts to stabilise the situation in the occupied territories.German Ambassador Martin Schneller told journalists on Monday that King Abdullah's scheduled visit to Berlin, his second this year, was a further testimony to the excellent relations between the two countries and their peoples.
On Oct. 12, the King is scheduled to open the first German-Jordanian e-business forum in Frankfurt, said the ambassador.
As a bid to boost cooperation and exchanges between the two countries' information technology (IT) firms, the e-business forum comes on the heels of a “very successful” trip to Germany by a large delegation of Jordanian business leaders, coinciding with His Majesty's last visit to Germany in May, Schneller noted.
The Jordanian delegation to Frankfurt will include 20-30 IT entrepreneurs and will be led by Post and Telecommunications Minister Fawwaz Zou'bi, he also announced.
A third important event on the agenda will be a forum on water and energy to be held at the Red Sea port city of Aqaba between March and April next year, the German envoy announced.
The forum was being designed to serve the dual purpose of exploring cooperation potential between Jordanian and German businesses in the field of energy and water, and present the recently-established Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) with development and investment opportunities to the German business community, he said.
“I will discuss the details [of the forum] with [ASEZA] Chief Commissioner [Akel] Biltaji in Aqaba on Sunday,” the ambassador told the press conference, convened to mark Germany's national day, on Oct. 3.
Schneller anticipated that, in addition to Jordanian officials and private sector representatives, the Aqaba forum will see the participation of a large delegation of German heavy-weight firms and will mainly deal with renewable energy, solar energy, energy efficiency, gas and oil, as well as water management, new technologies in wastewater management, and new technologies for irrigation. As the development of Aqaba's port facilities and tourism potential is considered crucial to the success of the special economic zone, transport and tourism will also be on the forum's agenda, Schneller said.
German firms and institutions are currently engaged in two major energy projects in the Kingdom: A $250 million investment to exploit the country's large reserves of oil shale for the generation of electricity; and a project still in the very early stages to use solar energy to produce 230 MW of electricity.
Moving on to the many issues surrounding and following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US, Schneller praised King Abdullah's stands in support of international efforts to combat the growing threat and evil of terrorism, while stressing the need for an urgent solution to the bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a guarantee for regional and international stability and security.
“Over the past few weeks, Amman has become a centre for diplomatic activities and coordination,” the ambassador pointed out.
The British, Austrian, and Norwegian foreign ministers visited the Kingdom over the last few days, in addition to Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and other Arab officials.
“I want to stress that Germany greatly admires the role of Jordan,” Schneller said.
“We see no security risks for travelers and tourists to Jordan. Anyone calling the [German] foreign office for information is told that this is a safe and stable country.”
Jordan's tourism industry, one of the country's top three foreign currency earners, has suffered a major blow as tour operators and airliners have been flooded with cancellations since the New York and Washington terror attacks.