Ammon News - * Also better higher education on food security, business centre

BRUSSELS - Three new projects, recently approved by the 43 members of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), envisage the construction of a Jordanian National Railway as part of a regional railway network, the improvement of Higher education on food security and rural development, and the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Development Centre for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Jordanian National Railway Project is promoted by the Transport Ministry of Jordan. This 4-year project will integrate the Jordanian railway system with the regional network by establishing an effective rail connection with neighbouring countries. The construction of a ''North-South Corridor'' from the Syrian Border to the Port of Aqaba (509 km) is the first phase and the backbone of the project. The Corridor is the main rail line of this proposed network, connecting Amman, the surrounding logistics centres and the nation's gateway port of Aqaba. The NorthSouth Line will further extend to the north of Amman to connect with Syria. The realisation of the North-South Corridor is expected to start in 2013 and finish in 2017.

The second project will last two years and is promoted by the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), aims at enhancing the employability skills of all professionals participating in higher education programmes and advanced training courses on food security and rural development. The project aims to improve CIHEAM's on-going post-graduate training programmes through the implementation of five specific and complementary actions, as the development of e-learning as a life-long-learning tool at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institutes (MAIs) of CIHEAM and the strengthening of Degree Recognition and Internationalization of MSc Degrees.

These activities will be carried out at each of the four CIHEAM institutes located in France, Greece, Italy and Spain as well as in other Southern member countries. Furthermore, the Chamber of Commerce of Milan promotes the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Development Centre for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) aimed at supporting MSMEs' access to market, finance, and human capital development. The project will allow for the creation of an efficient networking infrastructure among Euro-Mediterranean entrepreneurs, institutions and investors, in order to support MSMEs along the critical stages of start-up, growth and internationalization.

This project will in a first stage cover four priority countries in the region: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. A second stage envisages the expansion of the scope to the remaining countries of South and East Mediterranean region. (ANSAmed).