USAID launches the economic media reporters training program

The training took place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman, and was attended by economic correspondents and editors working for daily and weekly newspapers, Petra News Agency, Jordan Television, private sector media advisers and monthly economic magazines and registered as members of the 'Economic Media Professional Community'.

The opening session started with a welcoming note from USAID Economic Development Program (SABEQ) Deputy Chief of Party Ms. Carol Swan who wished participants a beneficial and useful training program.

Dr Ruba Jaradat from the USAID Growth Office spoke to the participants stressing on the importance of the issues the training program will cover She also highlighted the role of reporters in increasing public awareness and changing attitudes and mindsets in issues such as unemployment, self employment and the culture of shame.

"The training will empower your professional journalistic skills and will enable you to access sources of information that will enrich and widen scopes of coverage and analysis of economic issues " she said.

Public Private Dialogue & Outreach, Solution Leader, Sameera Qadoura, stressed in her concluding note the Program's intention for this involvement to be a long term relation, under different activities and initiatives.

The Training program includes very important economic topics and discussions that cover economic concepts, analysis of Jordan's economy, public budgets, competitiveness, markets analysis, economic transformation, SMEs, local economic development, trade and investment, and financial analysis.

The first day focused on characteristics of the Jordanian economy, Jordan's competitiveness, and introducing the SWOT tool to analyze certain sectors. A heated debate took place during group presentations followed by discussions on potential topics and articles that can be published by the participants.

The USAID Economic Development Program (SABEQ) supports the formation of Professional Community forums to establish networks of specialists in any one field, with a view of enhancing interaction amongst members and exchanging views on hot issues of their choice, in accordance with priorities they set for such quarterly meetings.

The five established professional communities to-date are: Strategic Management, Human Resources, Trade (Export Marketing), Bank Risk Management and Economic Media Reporters.

The USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by Bearing Point, 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, it supports the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.