USAID- SABEQ and The Jordan Exporters Association hold 5 awareness seminars on the Golden List Program in the Kingdom

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ and The Jordan Exporters Association in collaboration with the Jordan Customs and the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO), are holding five awareness seminars in Amman, Zarqa, Irbid,Karak, and Aqaba.

The first seminar was held on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at the Amman Sheraton Hotel from 2:00 pm until 5:00 pm. The following seminars will take place on 30 January in Zarqa, 6 February in Irbid, 19 February in Karak, and 20 February in Aqaba respectively.

The Golden List program is considered as one of the pilot programs using modern methods in customs work, where it depends on the principles of risk management and due diligence with the customs requirements and international security standards. According to this, the Program Customs Department applies compliance auditing techniques in order to verify the compliance of Jordanian companies which are nominated for the Program, and to evaluate their compliance with customs requirements and approved international security criteria, through performing actual auditing on the work systems and the processes related to customs declarations, import, export systems, as well as verifying the applied security systems in the company corroborate if they are in harmony with the approved criteria and conditions of this Program. This is done through a continuous coordination and consultation process.

Mr. Halim Abu Rahmeh, Vice Chairman and CEO of Jordan Exporters Association said: "it is very essential to carry out such seminars around the Kingdom in order to increase the awareness of the Golden List and its benefits among those concerned. We appreciate the efforts of USAID-SABEQ for supporting this initiative as we believe that these seminars are vital to the success of the Golden List program" he added.

In each governorate, the events are held in cooperation with the following parties: Zarqa- the Zarqa Chamber of Industry; Irbid- Irbid Chamber of Industry, Karak- the Prince Al Hussain Industrial City, and Aqaba- the Aqaba Special Economic Zone.

Jordan Exporters Association JEA, a private, voluntary membership, non-profit organization, was established in 1989 to assist Jordanian businesses in their quest to develop international trade, especially the promotion of Jordanian export. JEA represents, amongst its membership structure, leading manufacturing and service concerns from various sectors of the Jordanian economy. Through its daily activities and strategic projects, JEA has enabled Jordanian exporters to identify new marketing opportunities for their goods and services in international markets.
The USAID-funded Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by BearingPoint, Inc. and a sizeable team of international and Jordanian partner firms. By both supporting improvements in the business environment and providing assistance to expand innovation and productivity in Jordanian businesses, to support the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.