King Abdullah II of Jordan met the UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf and congratulated her on assuming her new position.
During the meeting, the Jordanian monarch hailed ESCWA efforts in supporting programs and plans to achieve human, economic and social development in Western Asia, especially in the Arab region, citing areas where cooperation between Jordan and ESCWA could be strengthened and increased.

Using information and communications technology (ICT) in ports is essential to ensure accurate, real-time control and pre-planning for port management operations. ICT applications benefit trade facilitation at ports by decreasing time, cost and human error during vessel and cargo operations, and many ports are therefore using ICT as a key tool in their operations. Adopting the combined system as the recommended architecture for ports in ESCWA member countries, this publication includes case studies on best practice in the application of ICT in seaports in selected member countries.