Jordan Times
Thursday, October 28, 2004
'Jordan Week' in
Nebraska to promote US-Jordan ties
AMMAN (JT) — Jordan's Ambassador to the United States Karim Kawar began a
four-day visit to Nebraska yesterday as a first step towards building
educational and business partnerships between the Kingdom and the state of
Nebraska.
The trip seeks to promote Jordan as a high-tech
centre in the Middle East and a strategic trade and investment hub, by sharing
the Kingdom's vision for the future, its reform process, its good
infrastructure, human resources, regulatory environment, and the advantages its
trade agreements with the US, Europe and the Arab world offer.
Jordan was the first Arab country to sign a US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (JUSFTA),
which entered into force in December 2001. The Kingdom has witnessed
unprecedented economic growth with total volume of US-Jordan trade reaching
nearly $1billion this year. The JUSFTA opens the door for understanding business
opportunities and acknowledges an increasingly attractive market for global
trade and investment in the manufacturing and services sector of the economy,
according to a statement released by the Jordanian embassy in Washington, DC.
During their visit, Kawar, accompanied by Maher Matalka, director of the
Economic and Commerce Bureau, and Abdullah Musa, president of the University of
Jordan, will meet with University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) administrators,
faculty, and students; tour labs and other campus facilities; tour the Capitol;
visit businesses in Lincoln and Omaha; and participate in a roundtable
discussion with business leaders interested in doing business with Jordan and/or
Middle Eastern companies.
Musa and UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman will sign a memorandum of agreement
between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Jordan (UJ),
the statement said.
This agreement is “intended to facilitate a collaborative programme of
education, research, training, institutional development, information
dissemination, and exchange of faculty, students and staff between the two
universities.”
The University of Jordan currently organises programmes for American students
interested in studying in UJ through its Office of International Relations and
Programmes.