Brussels — Aspen Pharmacare warded off a possible hefty EU antitrust fine after regulators accepted the pharmaceutical company’s offer to cut cancer drug prices in Europe by about two-thirds, in a landmark case aimed at deterring excessive prices.
In the past decade, the European Commission has cracked down on the pharmaceutical industry for pay-for-delay deals between brand name companies and their generic rivals, while shying away from excessive pricing cases.
The Commission decision confirmed a Reuters report on February 3.
In 2020, Aspen offered to cut prices by an average of 73% for six off-patent cancer drugs after the EU executive voiced concerns it may have charged excessive prices for drugs mainly used in the treatment of leukaemia and other haematological cancers.
The competition enforcer said there were no legitimate reasons for Aspen’s very high profit levels especially when the drugs used to treat certain serious forms of blood cancer, including myeloma and leukaemia, had been off-patent for 50 years.
“Today’s decision gives a strong signal to other dominant pharmaceutical companies not to engage in abusive pricing practices to exploit our health systems,” European Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The reduced prices will also act as a cap for 10 years, retroactive to October 2019. Aspen will guarantee supplies for five years and will also continue to supply or make its marketing authorisation to other suppliers for an additional five years.
The pledge is valid for 10 years. Aspen could have faced a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover on top of a finding of wrongdoing if found guilty of breaching EU rules.
Aspen’s offer does not apply to Italy, which earlier had its own case against the company.
Custom-made formwork that will be used to mold plaza walls has been assembled as berm walls rise and work on garden paths advances.
BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE — As construction of the floor for the central plaza of the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá nears completion, preparations are underway to build the more complex geometric elements of surrounding walls.
This and other recent developments on the site are featured in the images that follow.
Panels for the custom-made formwork that will shape the walls have now been delivered to the site.
The formwork that will act as a mold for the plaza walls is assembled for the first time.
The gap between the steel panels will be filled with concrete to form a single wall segment.
This mold will be used to build ten identical segments of the walls that will surround the central plaza, whose geometric pattern is visible in the design rendering to the left.
Top: View from the central plaza area toward the south plaza. Bottom: The curved portal wall that will enclose the south plaza takes shape.
Another view of the southeast curved portal wall that will enclose the south plaza.
Formwork is also being assembled for the curved portal wall along the north end of the east garden berm.
Two utility rooms that will be concealed under the garden berms are being built adjacent to the central plaza.
In one of the final stages of preparation for the floor of the central plaza, formwork is put in place for paths among the planters that will hold soil and irrigation for the gardens.
With the paths laid out, the geometric pattern of these gardens becomes visible.
An encircling path is being built on which visitors will be able to circumambulate the Shrine.
A view of the site from the west (left). The wall visible in the foreground marks the line where the slope of the garden berms will meet the encircling path, as seen in the design rendering (right).
Rabat – Two senior Belgian politicians are calling on the European Union to support Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara.
Louis Michel, the former Belgium’s Foreign Minister and Jacques Brotchi, the Honorary president of the Belgian Senate, released a joint statement on Saturday to support Morocco’s autonomy proposal as a viable way to end the conflict over Western Sahara.
In their joint statement, published by the EU Today, the two politicians extolled the decision of the US and other countries to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara
Michel, who also served as former European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, and Brotchi said the international community’s increasing support for Morocco’s stance is a positive move for “geographic, political and geo-strategic reasons.”
“Now we can see that the world is moving slowly but surely towards the recognition of the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara, a positive move for geographic, political and geo-strategic reasons,” the joint statement reads.
The two politicians expressed hope to see support extended across the world, calling on the European Union to join the pro-Morocco trend to ensure stability in the region.
“It is high time for the European Union, as a global actor, to position itself on the world stage by promoting the resolution of the conflict because if Africa is unstable, Europe and the Middle East can follow suit,” they said.
The two Belgian politicians warned that stability in Europe depends on Africa’s security.
“The Sahel and the Maghreb are vital regions for the sustainability and security of our continent,” the statement added.
Morocco has long expressed concerns regarding security in Sahel, calling for a “shared responsibility”-based international cooperation to address terror challenges in the region.
Moroccan officials see the Sahel as a breeding ground for terrorism, denouncing the lack of joint cooperation between neighbouring countries to respond to the crisis.
Morocco, reliable partner for EU
Morocco and the EU share a decades-long partnership in different fields.
The partnership touches on different common challenges, including economic development, innovation, climate change, security, and migration.
Michel and Brotchi called on the EU to preserve cooperation with Morocco.
Both officials described the North African country as a “privileged and reliable partner of the EU.”
Brotchi and Michek said that Morocco became a key regional actor in creating the conditions for a realistic and effective political solution for Western Sahara.
Morocco submitted the Autonomy Plan initiative to the UN Security Council in 2007.
The Moroccan plan suggests making Western Sahara a semi-autonomous region that would remain under Morocco’s sovereignty.
Dozens of newspapers, TV stations and websites blank or black: This was what the national strike of private media in Poland protesting a sudden and crippling government tax on advertising looked like on Feb. 10.
In Hungary the same week, an opposition radio station was ordered by a court to turn off its microphones this coming Monday.
This is the politics of the slow squeeze in Central Europe. It’s a strategy designed by two men, the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and the vice-premier and de facto leader of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Their countries, both former members of the Soviet bloc, belong to the European Union, and profit from it, but their ideas on democracy and the rule of law — principles their countries agreed to uphold when joining in 2004 — are far from those endorsed by EU leaders in Brussels.
The Leave.EU campaign and the insurance company owned by the political group’s key financial backer, Arron Banks, have lost an appeal against £105,000 of fines for data protection violations in the wake of the EU referendum campaign.
The companies were issued the fines two years ago, for including promotions for Banks’s GoSkippy insurance brand in emails to Leave.EU subscribers between August 2016 and February 2017.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had said then that the two organisations were closely linked, with “ineffective” systems for segregating the data of insurance customers from that of political subscribers.
Leave.EU was also fined £15,000 for using Eldon Insurance customers’ details unlawfully to send out almost 300,000 political marketing messages, before the referendum. An initial appeal against that ruling was withdrawn in May 2019.
In February 2019, when the fines and an audit into both companies’ use of data was announced, the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said: “It is deeply concerning that sensitive personal data gathered for political purposes was later used for insurance purposes, and vice versa. It should never have happened.”
The fines against which Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance had tried to appeal in the latest case were for sending more than 1 million emails to Leave.EU subscribers, containing adverts for discounted insurance from GoSkippy, a brand name used by Eldon.
The information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham. Photograph: ICO press office/PA
The campaign negligently disobeyed electronic marketing regulations in doing so, the ICO found.
The latest tribunal ruling noted findings of a previous court that both companies have a “confusingly two-faced approach to regulation” of personal data. It also noted that Banks had admitted being “untruthful”, and used a “bullying tone” in correspondence about the case.
“Mr Banks’s letter to the information commissioner admitting that he had been untruthful in the past was hardy likely to assuage all regulatory concerns, especially as it was followed by his letter of bullying tone,” the earlier ruling found.
Banks said Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance “will be appealing the fines to a higher court in due course”. He said the ruling would prevent newspapers and publishers from sending offers to subscribers.
The judges had addressed this argument, saying that Leave.EU’s privacy policy was so loosely drafted, it amounted to “signing a blank cheque”, and “frustrated the ability of its subscribers to consent to receive a political newsletter and nothing else”.
Because of this, the lower tribunal had been entitled “to find on the facts that subscribers did not ‘consent’, as that term is properly understood, to receiving direct marketing about Eldon’s insurance products”, the ruling said.
The judges also said that previous breaches of data protection law at Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance “should have put the parties on guard”.
The fines were initially announced as part of a wide-ranging investigation by the ICO into political uses of voters’ data, launched in 2017 following revelations in the Observer.
Denham, the commissioner, said it uncovered “a disturbing disregard for voters’ personal privacy”, and showed that the digital electoral ecosystem needed reform.
The ICO’s investigation involved 71 witnesses, 30 organisations with data practices under review, and more than 700 terabytes of data being assessed by investigators.
Earlier this week, Netflix dropped a surprise announcement that it’s adapting author Brian Jacques’ iconic Redwall books into a new animated movie and TV franchise. Based on the 22-book children’s series that was published from 1986 through 2011, the books span generations of sword-fighting anthropomorphic mice, rabbits, badgers, and other woodland creatures living at the titular Redwall Abbey.
While the show was previously made into a TV series back in the late ‘90s, it’s never been adapted with the scale (or presumably, the budget) of a Netflix feature film. Many of us here at The Verge are longtime fans of the series. Here’s how we’re taking the news.
What were your initial thoughts on a Redwall adaptation?
Chaim Gartenberg: I think my initial reaction was “OMG” followed by a lot of screaming from my internal seven-year-old. I grew up reading the Redwall books. I remember the original being one of the first “real” books I ever read. And the entire series just has this shining, golden spot in my memory. They’re wholesome, lovely books full of daring adventures, clever puzzles, and where good always triumphs over evil. What’s not to like?
Jay Peters: I was elated when I first saw the news of the Redwall remaster. I was a devoted fan of the books for years as a kid, devouring each new entry in the series as soon as I could. But if I’m being honest, I couldn’t tell you a single plot point from any of the books right now. Hopefully, that doesn’t matter for the new series; as long as it features adorable forest creatures in epic battles and enjoying decadent feasts, I’ll be happy.
Adi Robertson: I’m partly in the same boat: I read the books religiously, but I remember very little about their actual plots. They really hit the part of my brain that loved dollhouses and other miniature things. Unlike Jay and Chaim, though, I remember enjoying that they could be kind of bloody and creepy — we’re not talking Watership Down or anything, but I remember a lot of eerie fortresses and mad kings.
Mitchell Clark: Yeah, I have to agree. While I remember books like Triss being light-hearted adventures, I know there were some pretty dark ones like Marlfox and parts of Salamandastron — assassins, bloodlust, the whole nine yards. As an adult, and given Netflix’s reputation, I’ve wondered if they’ll get into the darker parts, but I’m honestly kind of hoping they keep it aimed more at kids, and that it’ll inspire some of those kids to pick up the book series.
What makes Redwall a good choice for a TV show?
Jay: There’s lots of swashbuckling action and heroic tales, which consistently makes for pretty good TV. I’m sure many of the characters will be fuzzy and adorable, making the show even more watchable. And Netflix has a lot of source material to pull from, given there are approximately 1,000 books in the series.
Chaim: So many books. But part of the brilliance is that they’re all (for the most part) fairly standalone, so adapting each one could be its own project.
Mitchell: Fantasy has been very in lately, but it’s usually not aimed at kids. It’s a good series that has a lot of elements that really let your imagination run wild, and I think that’ll be very fun. It could also lend itself to a really neat art style. There’s always a lot of talk of tapestries and paintings in the books.
What parts or books in the series are you most looking forward to seeing?
Russell Brandom: It’s been a good 20 years since I read these books, but two scenes stand out. First, the outright terror of Matthias standing off against Asmodeus in the first Redwall hooked me like nothing else. The snake hypnotism is a great use of the central animal-fantasy conceit, and the fact that Asmodeus isn’t the primary villain makes the encounter that much more unsettling. The second — spoilers for Mossflower, I guess? — is Tsarmina in the sinking castle at the end of the second book, a legitimately haunting image if you have any fear of drowning, which I definitely did at the time. (Cats hate water! So true.) I’ll have to wait for the Martin the Warrior prequel series to see that one on-screen, though.
Chaim: I’m kind of hoping for some good, fuzzy, Lord of the Rings-style battles. Show us some Badger Lords, please.
Any concerns about making a Redwall show?
Mitchell: There’s just so much lore, backstory, and regular stories told over the series that I hope Netflix and the show’s creators have come up with a specific story they want to tell within the universe. I’m not sure I want to see them try to tackle the whole thing. I’d rather be left wanting more than overstuffed.
Chaim: It’s a good point, but it seems like they’re starting (relatively) small: a movie based on the first book, and a TV series focused on Martin the Warrior, which makes sense to me. Martin’s story is a broader one, spread across a number of books, while the first book is relatively self-contained.
Adi: I remember the books relying a lot on Tolkien-style species-based morality, and that’s objectively weird, and I’m not sure how the show will deal with it! I was going to soften this by saying that I remember some good foxes or something, but the Redwall Wiki informs me that foxes are “without exception villainous vermin,” so I guess that settles that.
Russell: I’m going to throw in a practical concern here. Part of the fun of the books is imagining this wide range of animals interacting both as friends and enemies, with rabbits, badgers, mice, crows, and various obscure mustelids interacting more or less as equals. But if you have to draw canonical versions of these characters, the size differential becomes a problem. Mice are just much, much smaller than crows, cats, weasels, rats, and most of the other common Redwall antagonists.
Sword or no, even the bravest mouse cannot realistically take down an animal more than 10 times its size, so choreographing the fight scenes is going to be a serious problem if we stay even slightly close to natural proportions. But at the same time, an undeniable draw of the series is picturing mice holding swords in their little mouse hands, which becomes less fun if you stray too far from the sort-of photorealistic animals depicted on the classic book covers. It’s a real bind!
CGI? Hand-drawn animation? Lion King-esque faux live action? How would you want to see a Redwall show realized?
Mitchell: I hate to be boring, but it’s gotta be hand-drawn. I think that’ll work best for the fantasy setting, and while I don’t need it to have the same art style as Over The Garden Wall, I’d like the vibe to be similar, if that makes sense.
Chaim: Anything but “realistic” CGI, please. These books are… pretty violent, which I’m worried would translate really badly to a realistic style. No one needs to see a mouse murder a bunch of rats with a sword in faux-live-action, especially not the family-friendly target audience.
Jay: I want hand-drawn, but I expect CGI. Netflix, if it’s not too late: please, make the show hand-drawn.
Russell: Given the surreal nature of the setup, I think they could also get away with computer-assisted 2D animation, along the lines of what Cartoon Saloon does. But definitely not 3D and definitely not photo-realistic. Nobody wants to see another Lion King.
Some Deeper’n’Ever Turnip’n’Tater’n’Beetroot Pie or some strawberry cordial?
Mitchell: While I don’t love beetroots, strawberries are extremely out of season right now, so rustle up what roots you can from the cellar, aye chap?
Adi: Anything except clotted cream, because A) the large amount of dairy-based food in Redwall has always raised questions to me about where exactly the milk is coming from in a series about humanoid animals (I vaguely remember “aphid milk” being an answer at one point?), and B) I still don’t really know what it is.
Jay: Honestly, I’d try any of it. If the show is successful, maybe Netflix can make a Redwall-themed cooking show spinoff.
Adi: Either way, Redwall Feast TikTok is gonna be great.
Germany partially closed its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol on Sunday over a troubling surge in coronavirus mutations, drawing a swift rebuke from the European Union.
A thousand police officers were mobilised to ensure strict border checks, which recall the much-criticised early days of the pandemic when EU countries hastily closed their frontiers to each other.
At the Kiefersfelden crossing in southern Bavaria, masked officers in yellow high-visibility vests were out in sub-zero temperatures, stopping each vehicle coming from Austria.
Under the new rules, only Germans or non-German residents are allowed through, and they must provide a recent negative coronavirus test.
Some exceptions are allowed for essential workers in sectors such as health and transport, as well as for urgent humanitarian reasons, the German interior ministry has said.
Among those turned back was Austrian driver Irene, who said she would now have to make an hours-long detour.
“I only wanted to drive through Germany to go to Vienna,” she told AFP. “This is a catastrophe, I have a dog in the car who is 15 years old… I don’t know the way and I don’t have GPS.”
The restrictions are aimed at slowing the spread of more contagious variants that first emerged in Britain and South Africa, and have created new virus hotspots along the Czech border and in Austria’s Tyrol region.
At the German-Czech border crossing in Bad Gottleuba, a police spokesman said the checks had caused waiting times of around one hour, and that traffic was expected to be heavier from Monday.
‘Enough’
The European Commission, eager to avoid a return to go-it-alone pandemic responses, has condemned Germany’s border restrictions.
“The fear of the coronavirus mutations is understandable,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told Germany’s Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday.
“But the truth is that the virus cannot be stopped by closed borders,” she said, adding that vaccines and following hygiene precautions were “the only things that work”.
“I think it’s wrong to return to a Europe with closed borders like we had in March 2020,” she added.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has rebuffed the criticism from Brussels.
“That’s enough now,” he told the top-selling Bild daily. The EU “has made enough mistakes” with its sluggish vaccine rollout, he said.
“We are fighting against the mutated virus at the Czech and Austrian borders. The EU Commission should support us… instead of putting stones in our path.”
Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, speaking to reporters near the Czech border, also defended the checks.
“We are for a free Europe. But safety and protection must come first,” he said.
German rail company Deutsche Bahn has suspended services to and from the affected areas.
At Frankfurt airport, the country’s largest, federal police were checking passengers arriving from Vienna and Prague.
‘Reassuring’
More than two months of shutdowns have brought down infection numbers in Germany, but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government recently decided to extend a partial lockdown until March 7 because of the risks posed by the variants.
In the Czech Republic, one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, three cantons including two on the German border have been placed under lockdown due to the prevalence of the British virus variant.
In Austria, anyone leaving the mountainous region of Tyrol now needs to produce a negative test following a cluster of Covid-19 cases linked to the highly transmissible South African variant.
Germany is also considering introducing checks at the border with the Moselle region in eastern France.
“For everyone not living in a hotspot it’s reassuring to know that those in border regions are working hard to prevent the spread of the virus,” said Soeder.
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(Photo: www.UKHK.org)UK groups sets up network of churches to welcome Hong Kong residents expected to go to Britain.
The United Kingdom is expecting tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents to arrive this year and a UK-wide church initiative is welcoming them to Britain as they leave their region that once cherished its civil liberties, but has seen them eroded since China took over.
Home for Good founder Krish Kandiah with the help of the Anglican Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally launched the www.UKHK.org website in London.
The website, www.UKHK.org, was launched in London on Feb. 12 by Home for Good founder Krish Kandiah with the help of the Anglican Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally.
“Hospitality is one of the defining features of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus once said, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in. Because what we do for the least of these we do for him,” Kandiah says on the website.
“There’s a huge opportunity right now for the church to show that Jesus loving hospitality to people who need our help.
“Around 130,000 people are expected to come to the UK from Hong Kong, just this year alone.
Hong Kong was a British colony until its handover to Beijing in 1997, when the “one country, two systems” and it became a Special Administration Region of China.
500 CHURCHES SIGNED UP
Christian Today reported that 500 churches in Britain had signed up Anglican churches, Baptist, ethnic Chinese, charismatic, evangelical churches and the Salvation Army including the iconic St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
On Jan. 31, the United Kingdom announced an immigration program that will ease UK citizenship requirements for millions of Hong Kong citizens who want to leave the territory following continued pressure from Beijing on civil liberties, accorfing to Deutsche Welle.
UK government forecasts say the new visa could attract more than 300,000 people and their dependents to Britain, Reuters reported noting that Beijing said it would make them second-class citizens.
The UK Home Office estimates there are 2.9 million British National Overseas, or BNO, status holders eligible to move to the UK, with a further estimated 2.3 million eligible dependents, according to the BBC.
The launch of the website coincided with Chinese New Year and a warning from persecution watchdog Release International that the freedoms once enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong are “all gone,” said Christian Today.
It quoted freedom activist Bob Fu said: “The crackdown is so severe in some areas of Hong Kong that freedom of speech and freedom of association is actually worse than in mainland China.
CRACKDOWN
“There is arbitrary detention, massive surveillance and a huge crackdown of legally elected legislators.
“One church has had its bank account frozen, just for considering helping victims of political persecution.
“What is happening in Hong Kong sends a chilling message all over the world. The world should take note: there is no rule of law anymore, no independence, no freedom of the press, no freedom of association, no freedom of speech anymore in Hong Kong. These are all gone.”
Under the new scheme, these people will be able to apply online for a visa.
BNO arrivals from Hong Kong are allowed to live, work and study in the UK as long as they can financially support themselves, according to the BBC.
After five years in the UK, they will be able to apply for citizenship.
BNO status is a legacy of British colonial rule specifically granted to Hong Kong residents born before the territory was handed back to China in 1997.
The special status of citizenship is a type of British nationality created in 1985 that people in Hong Kong could apply for before the 1997 handover to China to retain a link with the UK.
The lifelong status, which cannot be passed down to family members, did not give holders any special rights.
It meant only they could visit the UK for six months without a visa.
But the new system, in place from Jan. 31, allows these BNO citizens and their close family to apply for two periods of five years to live and work in the UK.
The UKHK.org website is available in English and Cantonese and will serve new arrivals from Hong Kong with information on many things they need to know.
These include getting settled in the UK, navigating the British education system, applying for jobs, registering with a medical doctor, traveling on public transport, and where they can find good Cantonese food.
The arrival of the Hong Kongers expected to arrive in the UK this year on the BNO visa in the largest planned migration to the UK since Windrush.
People arriving in the UK between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries have been labelled the Windrush generation.
The UK’s financial services industry will face its biggest post-Brexit competition from Asia and the US, according to foreign secretary Dominic Raab.
Raab said EU financial capitals may “nick a bit of business here and there from the City”, but that they will not challenge London’s status as Europe’s global financial capital.
It comes as Amsterdam surpassed London as the largest share trading centre in January in the wake of the UK’s exit from the EU’s single market and customs union.
The City also lost its previous EU-wide access to European financial markets on 31 December.
“I don’t accept the binary zero sum war of attrition…what matters to the UK and the City is the comparative advantage we have on the fundamentals,” Raab told the BBC.
“You were citing equities, but the boss of Barclays has been saying recently how the long-term position of the UK is unparalleled, unrivalled. The crucial question for the EU, while it may be able if you like to nick a bit of business here or there from the City, but the problem is the measures they will take to achieve this will undermine their own competitiveness.
“The challenge to London as a global financial centre around the world will come from Tokyo, New York and other areas rather than those European hubs. Particularly if they start to erect barriers to trade and investment.”
The only way the City of London can regain its pre-Brexit access to the EU is if Brussels grants regulatory equivalence across 40 areas, however Brussels believes the UK is destined to diverge from its financial services regulations and has withheld the designation.
The Treasury is currently holding Memorandum of Understanding talks with the EU to ensure future regulatory cooperation around financial services.
The talks aim to put in place an agreement so that financial services regulators in the UK and EU share information and have open dialogue when making new regulatory decisions.
Barclays chief executive Jes Staley said earlier this week that the City needs “to be focused on New York and Singapore” post-Brexit and not the EU.
“I think Brexit is more than likely on the positive side than on the negative side,” he told the BBC.
“What the UK needs and London needs, is to make sure that the City is one of the best places, whether [it is in terms of] regulation or law or language, or talent.
€100 million of financing to support economic resilience of Jordan
Team Europe response to tackle the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Funds to support private sector in Jordan
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is partnering with Housing Bank to support the Jordanian economy with a €100 million line of credit to local private sector businesses that have been severely impacted by the economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak.
The operation represents a coordinated effort with the European Union and forms part of Team Europe’s overall response to the Covid-19 crisis, which aims to support sustainable social and economic recovery of the region. It also falls under the EU-EIB Economic Resilience Initiative (ERI), which amongst its primary objectives, intends to promote private sector development through the support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as key players for generating economic growth and employment opportunities in Jordan.
Dario Scannapieco, Vice President of the EIB, said “It is one of the EIB’s top priorities to support the resilience of the private sector during this unprecedented crisis with the provision of most needed funding through our cooperation with the Jordanian banking sector. Our partnership with Housing Bank for Trade and Finance aims to make available vital financing local businesses to help them cope with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of the Team Europe response, we are committed to stepping up our support for Jordan to address the immediate challenges caused by the pandemic, as well as laying the foundations for a successful economic recovery after the crisis.”
Housing Bank’s CEO Ammar Safadi said, “This cooperation agreement is especially valued at Housing Bank, demonstrating the depth of the trust that EIB has placed in us as well as cementing their belief in our ability to support private-sector companies and especially the SMEs, a sector that we pay particular attention to due to its positive role in stimulating economic growth and providing job opportunities.” He pointed out that Housing Bank has established a specialized department dedicated to supporting SMEs to obtain the necessary and needed funding through programs that offer preferential rates.
Safadi went on to say the Housing Bank was among the first Jordanian banks to launch a financing program to support SMEs, helping them counteract the negative repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic by offering them low interest rates of just 2%, a move that is in line with the Central Bank of Jordan’s directions in April 2020 in response to the Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation’s initiative. Safadi explained that the financing program offers excellent terms and competitive costs as a means of facilitating SME financing, helping them cover their operational costs and working capital in order to continue operations, pay employee salaries and meet their running costs.
Housing Bank Chief Executive Officer Ammar Al-Safadi said, “The European Investment Bank’s ardent financial support for the SME sector, which is the backbone of Jordan’s economy and a key driver of the economy, will go a long way towards recovery from the difficulties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Through these funds, we will be able to continue supporting the sector and safeguarding jobs while simultaneously strengthening the economy’s resilience.”
The EU Ambassador to Jordan, H.E. Maria Hadjitheodosiou, welcomed the financing provided by the EIB to Housing Bank, underlining the importance of supporting SMEs in maintaining jobs and creating economic growth. The EU Ambassador added that this financing is complementary to other EU ongoing programs that aim to support economic growth, such as the €64 million programme “EU Support to Economic Reforms for Growth and Jobs in Jordan” that supports the implementation of the Government’s economic reform plans to improve private sector competitiveness and the investment climate, whilst strengthening public finance management.
Background information
SMEs are the backbone of the Jordanian economy as they account for over 95% of local businesses, contribute to more than 50% of GDP, and employ about 60% of the working population. As a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies have experienced a decrease in turnover and profitability, leading to payment delays and an increased demand for liquidity. It is now crucial to step up support to private sector businesses, thus helping to protect jobs and keep the economy going.
About Housing Bank:
Established in 1973 under a private law as a Jordanian public limited company, Housing Bank started its work as a bank specialized in housing finance with a capital of half a million Jordanian dinars. After 24 years of its establishment, a new phase began in the Bank’s journey when it became a comprehensive commercial bank in 1997. The Bank’s capital was raised more than once during the past years, the last of which was in 2017, when it reached 315 million Jordanian dinars (equivalent to 444 million US dollars). The Bank’s successive administrations have been keen to increase its capital base by strengthening its various reserves. Throughout its journey, the Bank was able to occupy a leading position in the Jordanian banking sector, and is today considered the largest bank in Jordan in terms of the number of branches, ATMs, and savings account balances. The Bank has received several important awards.
For more information, visit our website: www.hbtf.com
Note to the editor
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union’s bank. It is the long-term lending institution of the EU and is the only bank owned by and representing the interests of the European Union Member States. The EIB works closely with other EU institutions to implement EU policy.
