AmCham-Jordan CEO participates in women in trade dialogue with other women AmCham leaders in MEA region

AMMAN — American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan (AmCham-Jordan) CEO Rose Alissi has participated in a virtual session titled: “Women Empowered Leave Legacies through Trade and Investment (WELLTI),” organised by the US Commercial Service Office; the diplomatic arm of the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and part of the US Foreign Service.

The session was attended by nearly 200 attendees from around the world, and featured women leaders from the US Chamber of Commerce affiliates in the MEA region including AmCham-Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Abu Dhabi, Nigeria and South Africa, according to an AmCham-Jordan statement. 

The session was a discussion that focussed on the opportunities, challenges and solutions that are effective in navigating these markets. “Women doing business in the Middle East and Africa were able to benefit from the insights and wisdom from these experienced women AmCham leaders,” read the statement.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) of Commerce for Middle East and Africa, Global Markets, Camille Richardson, launched this event. She briefed attendees about the WELLTI initiative, which aims to bring together leading businesswomen from the United States and the MEA region to share and exchange strategies, techniques and resources to help increase the participation of women in international trade.   

Richardson shared insightful statistics stating that “more than 90 per cent of enterprises around the world are considered SMEs which account for nearly 80 per cent of jobs globally”.

She also mentioned that “women own nearly 10 million of the world’s SMEs”. Richardson stressed that “sustainable economic growth and achievement of the Development Goals are possible only through the active participation of women”.

Aliss shed light on the crucial role and initiatives of the Jordanian government in cooperation with the private sector and donor agencies. Such initiatives involve reforming policies to advocate for more active participation of Jordanian women in leadership roles and ensuring that women are empowered with access to knowledge, technology, know-how, finance, and access to market. 

Alissi focused on the promising growth of Jordanian women entrepreneurs, stating that “Jordan, one of the Middle East’s smallest markets, has produced the largest number of the region’s start-up success stories”.

Alissi concluded that “despite the increasing role of women economic participation in Jordan throughout the years, having one of the highest literacy rates of women in the Middle East, it still hosts one of the lowest participation rates in the world”, emphasising that “the key to success is in changing mindsets, because in the Middle East, traditional gender roles are affecting women’s participation in labor force.  The vision is of women who devote more time than men on average to housework and child care, while managing their work-life balance by being successful mothers, entrepreneurs and committed employees”.