Jordanian businessman develops award-winning security printing firm

AMMAN — It was perseverance and the strive for continuous business development that helped the Jordanian entrepreneur Mazen Awamleh succeed in the security printing industry.

Over 20 years ago, when he was still a student of politics and business at Yarmouk University, Awamleh knew he did not want to work in the public sector, an option many of his peers preferred at the time.

In the early 1990s, he started working at a family business in the security printing industry, but the business did not fulfill Awamleh’s desires and aspirations.

He decided that he wanted to carry on in the same field, but in another country of the region in order to avoid some of the challenges he had faced in Jordan, including the public sector’s bureaucracy.

Speaking to The Jordan Times about his experience on Saturday, Awamleh said he picked Dubai to start his business in this field that was then dominated by specific nationalities, mainly Europeans.

“The first couple of years were very difficult, as I needed to prove myself and my ability to compete in the market,” he said, adding that he started off by providing security printing services to universities for their certifications. 

His business gradually expanded and he started making security printing orders for governmental documents in Dubai in the health, educational and financial sectors.

It took Awamleh continuous training and up-scaling of theoretical and technical skills to provide quality services that entitled his company to become internationally recognised and hold cross-border strategic partnerships.

Awamleh’s business, which counts 50 employees and is estimated at a market value of nearly JD10 million, has obtained the Guinness World Records in 2002 for issuing the world’s biggest secured visa document. 

In 2016, the business has won the first prize in the Eska’s Forge award competition under the luxury packaging for the regions of Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa. 

Commenting on the significance of security printing, he said it prevents forging documents and fraud and safeguards the rights of people and governments.

Financial losses resulting from forged official documents in Jordan reached $126 million (nearly JD90 million) in 2013, according to Awamleh, who claimed that the figures have further increased in 2014 and 2015. However, the development of security printing will allow all of Jordan’s official documents, including passports and currency, to be printed at home, he said, adding that a governmental or semi-governmental supervision will give further security and trust in the project.