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Ammon News - Financing outstanding Jordanian university students’ graduation projects
AMMONNEWS – The King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) has signed a cooperation agreement with Jordan Oil Shale Company (JOSCo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, to finance the graduation projects of outstanding Jordanian public and private university students in the areas of environmental, water, energy and geology fields.

By virtue of the cooperation agreement, JOSCo will dedicate JD 60,000 to fund approximately 12 graduation projects from various Jordanian universities. The financing process will follow the same mechanism used in KAFD’s graduation projects’ support program, which was launched in 2004 in partnership with the Scientific Research Center of the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB).

To date, KAFD has financed 146 graduation projects that have benefited a total of 477 students. The newly signed agreement is expected to further raise the number of students benefiting from the program.

Signing the agreement were KAFD Executive Director Tarik Awad, JOSCo General Manager Thomas Meijssen and Natural Resources Authority Director General Mousa Al Zyoud on behalf of the Jordanian government.

“We are very proud to be collaborating with JOSCo. The signing of this agreement testifies to the longstanding success of the graduate projects’ support program and affirms KAFD’s belief in the effectiveness of partnering with private sector companies to provide financial and technical support,” said Awad. “In addition to backing programs that hone Jordanian students’ research and development skills, Shell’s support in financing graduation projects reflects the company’s strong commitment to social responsibility though promoting creativity and excellence in scientific research. Such efforts direct students’ interests towards vital sectors like energy, water and environment which are crucial to Jordan’s sustainable development.”

In turn, Meijssen said, “Our social investments are integral to our activities in Jordan. We believe in sustainable development principles and we hope that our contribution will help nurture local capabilities in the shale oil industry and other key industries in Jordan.”

Meijssen went on to state that this cooperation agreement represents the first of several of JOSCo’s social investment projects in the areas of HR capacity building, environmental preservation and traffic safety that the company aims to support in partnership with different entities specialized in local community development.

Meijssen added, “We are very proud of our partnership with The King Abdullah II Fund for Development. We hope that by financing students’ graduation projects, we can enrich scientific research in universities in light of the important role it plays in developing human resources and enhancing students capabilities to enable them to excel.”