Interview with Ms Dana Bayyat

Ms Dana Bayyat
CEO
Jordan Garments, Accessories & Textiles Exporter’s Association (JGATE)

The Jordan Garments, Accessories & Textiles Exporter’s Association (JGATE) is a non-profit, private sector initiative with a mission of encouraging networking, investment, professional development, product & manufacturing development, strategic alliances, export and advocacy in the Jordan textile and garment industry. JGATE facilitates collaboration between buyers, manufacturers and suppliers by providing a forum that generates leads, builds domestic cooperation and forms global export alliances. A key component in realizing effective networking and collaboration is cooperation amongst local producers, supporting industries, and international garment and buying associations. JGATE supplies the links that develop these critical relationships between stakeholders through the coordination of buying missions, trade shows and delegations, and supporting these efforts with maximum and relevant publicity. Ms Dana Bayyat is the CEO of JGATE. She started her job carrier as a trainee in a legal firm in 1999 after her graduation from the Law school. Standing to the challenge of proving herself at a young age, Ms Bayyat, in two years passed the Lawyers Bar Exam and was officially registered as a Lawyer. She began her carrier in Law by working with previous firm but now as an official lawyer, and succeeded to prove herself in the courts and to get big client list. In 2004, Ms Bayyat joined JGATE as an Advocacy Coordinator. In 2005, she was promoted to be an Officer and she started working with the garment sector which is the first industrial sector in Jordan. She was working with the sector closely by minimize regulatory, legal and trade restrains by lobbying for policies development and promotion necessary reforms, and was presenting the sector in the National strategy Committee and in the MOL Golden List Committee, and such other committees related to the sector. In 2006, she joined the business field by being an Executive Director to a Garment factory in Sahab, and that was the big challenge again as a young entrepreneur, a female managing more than 1000 employees. She was the youngest Manager in the sector. Believing in hard work and diligence to prove that women can do equally better what usually people consider it as a “man’s job", Ms Bayyat got elected as a Director Member to represent the sector in JGATE Board. She also represented textile industry of Jordan in the committee that solves the foreign workers problems in the sector. In 2008, she re

Let us begin the talk with a few words from you on your association’s activities in textile and garments industry of Jordan. What benefits do your members enjoy?

The Jordan Garments, Accessories & Textiles Exporter’s Association (JGATE) is a non-profit, private sector initiative established to drive industry growth. We aim to serve as the focal point for all activities related to the garment sector. Thereby, providing leadership and support to principal industry stakeholders and supporting partners.

Vision : To transform Jordan’s garment sector into a world-class Fashion industry.

Mission: Our mission is to increase sector competitiveness and expand export capacity. We will connect members to the resources necessary to build export networks, attract investment, improve management know-how, improve supply chain collaboration, enhance production and design capabilities, and advocate for policy development and reform.

JGATE offers several valuable benefits to its members including:

- Improvements in operational bottlenecks by lobbying for regulatory change

- Linkages between manufacturers, buyers and suppliers that help build domestic cooperation and form global export alliances

- Educational programs that aim to increase productivity and efficiency among members

- Training seminars that enable members to take full advantage of export opportunities by addressing trade agreement compliance, international quality standards, labor laws, and customs requirements

The industry indeed is such an important source of country’s growth. How would you describe its present rendition while considering current economic turmoil?

This industry yes is very important source of the country’s growth, and we think the current economic turmoil is a temporary situation and our industry here in Jordan can survive against this turmoil and rebuild its abilities to penetrate new market niches based on well established relations with Major International Buyers.

How does Textile and Clothing industry make itself significant for your country’s economy?

It employs 55000 local workers. Exports in the sector reached more than 1.2 billion US Dollars. It has attracted investment of more than $720 millions in the country.

What all policies have been mooted by the Jordanian Government to pull out the industry from this critical situation? How is JGATE shouldering this league?

- JGATE assessed the sector identifying its challenges and potentials, in close partnership with the government.

- Currently implementing a comprehensive agenda creating a sustainable & competitive garment industry in Jordan.

- JGATE worked closely with the government starting from early last year on a package of support to the industry and put a medium term strategy to pull out the industry from the critical situation , the policies were concentrating on how the government can reduce the cost for the sector such as reducing some governmental fees, and support the cost of training the local workers and transportation.. etc, and also working on finding new markets.

Have Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) agreement been fruitful to bring in good tidings for Jordanian Textile and Clothing industry?

The QIZ Agreement & the Jordan-US FTA opened up unique export opportunities for Jordan to access the US market. The results have been very favorable under these agreements, as the sector is employing over 55,000 people and generates about $1.2 billion worth of exports.

We have achieved a net growth of over 200 % in export levels, and over 20 % in employment levels in the past several years.

Professional development amongst the industry is the must tool to fight out global competition. What is your say; which areas need to be ameliorated to have the competitive edge? How JGATE will be instrumental in this?

Yes I agree. 100% it is a must tool for all the industries especially in our industry and JGATE plays a major role in it, especially, in educational programs that aim to increase productivity and efficiency among our members and training seminars that enable members to take full advantage of export opportunities by addressing trade agreement compliance, international quality standards, labor laws, and customs requirements…etc

What all measures have been taken to increase awareness of the social compliance in the industry?

As of March 2007, the Government of Jordan published its Action Plan to improve its labor administration and labor compliance systems. The Action Plan focuses on, first of all, improving working conditions through inspection and compliance assistance. Secondly, enhancing institutional capacity for labor administration and law enforcement, and last but not least, increasing employment opportunities for Jordanians. All three focus areas are of a significant importance to the apparel sector. The Government of Jordan, in joint efforts with JGATE and employers as well as workers, is working as partners. As a result, Jordan is well on its way to becoming a model for labor administration and compliance for the region, therefore better work programs were also put in place.

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Published on: 01/06/2009

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.

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