Jordan Times
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
int@j
organises trade mission to United States
AMMAN (JT) — ICT companies from the Information Technology Association of Jordan
(int@j) in cooperation with the Jordanian embassy in Washington DC will be
heading to the US on Sunday, for the second int@j ICT trade mission to that
country.
This comprehensive visit aims at promoting Jordan's ICT sector to as part of int@j's
global outreach mission.
“This year will be a landmark year for promoting Jordanian ICT companies
globally,” said int@j CEO Bilal Abuzeid, who will be heading the delegation.
“Our companies have what it takes to export their products and services to the
world, a fact that has been proven by different int@j members in the past five
years.”
The eight-day endeavour comprises two destinations: The first to San Francisco
as a follow up to His Majesty King Abdullah's visit last April to the Bay Area.
The second will be to Washington DC for a full programme arranged by the North
Virginia Technology Council that visited the Kingdom last April accompanied by a
fifteen company delegation.
“The Jordan-US Free Trade Agreement (JUSFTA) stresses the importance of trade in
Information Technology products to both countries,” said Maher Matalka, director
of Economic and Commerce Bureau, Embassy of Jordan, Washington DC. “It sets
principals of e-commerce and trading in digitised products, reaffirms both
countries' obligations to TRIPS and GATS under the WTO, and adheres to US IPR
standards.”
“Moreover, Jordan and the United States are both signatories to the Information
Technology Agreement, under which both countries grant zero-tariff treatment for
almost all information technology products traded between the two countries,” he
added.
Matalka indicated that all of these ventures have led to “robust growth of this
nascent sector in terms of exports and investments from major ICT companies such
as Cisco, Microsoft, HP and many others.”
The delegation comprises representatives of eight ICT prime companies, namely:
Exhortech Business Solutions, CNS Primus, Payment Centric - Telaterra,
ProgressSoft, New Era for Computer Systems, BOSSit and Estarta Software
Solutions.
Companies will promote and market themselves for greater business opportunities
on an international level through one-on-one meetings with companies and general
networking meetings.
int@j is also in the process of planning trade missions to the Gulf, Europe and
the Far East.
“On our agenda this year are several trade missions. It is imperative that we
promote our products and services. We have been in contact with different
counterparts who will assist us to open doors for Jordanian companies to new and
untapped markets,” said Abuzeid.