EU, ACI celebrate 15th anniversary of joint training institute

AMMAN — The European Union and the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) on Sunday celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Euro-Jordanian Advanced Business Institute (EJABI).

The ceremony was attended by Senate President Faisal Fayez, EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana, Senator Ziad Homsi, chairman of the ACI, and several dignitaries and representatives from embassies, companies, NGOs and governmental institutions, according to statement from ACI.

Giving a speech, Fayez expressed hope that the EJABI will reach out to the vast majority of SMEs, organisations and individuals.

“The Jordan Europe Business Association [JEBA] had lots of achievements, which positively affected in spreading knowledge inside the industrial sector, and providing all aspects of technical support to employers, in addition to working on raising the level of employees in various fields and specialities”, Fayez also said.

Homsi highlighted the institute’s “tremendous” marks in the development of the industrial sector in Jordan, saying: “It [EJABI] had a great power to distribute knowledge by providing technical support and training.Today, EJABI is a non-profit organisation to reflect ACI’s vision to sustain this service after the EU support.”

“Today’s celebration shows that the ACI made an effective use of the seed funding provided by the EU. We hope that the institute will continue to operate in future,” Fontana said.

In 2003/2004, the EU and ACI partnered in order to set up the EJABI- training institute with specific focus on further developing and supporting SMEs in Jordan, according to the statement.

Since its opening, EJABI has been able to provide capacity building training to increase the managerial and technical skills of the enterprises to more 20,000 delegates, 500 clients, and delivered more than 3000 training days, according to the statement.

“EJABI is available to a broad audience, to which it offers unique and boutique venues placed in the heart of Amman for workshops, trainings, seminars and tailor-made events.”