Senior Bush Administration Official Honors New Jersey Companies For Export Achievements IDT of Newark and Maddak of Wayne Receive Awards

For Immediate Release:January 6, 2006
Contact:Victoria Park (202) 482-3809
Gil Nielsen (IDT) (973) 438-3553
Joseph Kelly (Maddak) (973) 694-0500

Senior Bush Administration Official Honors New Jersey Companies
For Export Achievements
IDT of Newark and Maddak of Wayne Receive Awards

Franklin L. Lavin, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade today presented the U.S. Commerce Department's Export Achievement Award to IDT of Newark and Maddak, a division of Bel-Art Products, of Wayne. The award is presented to businesses that have benefited from the Department's Commercial Service export assistance to make export sales or open new foreign markets.

"Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers live outside of the United States, and these companies serve as outstanding examples of New Jersey companies that are creating jobs and strengthening the local economy through exporting," Lavin said. "The Bush Administration will continue to work hard to help U.S. firms increase their exports by opening up foreign markets to American goods and generating high-paying jobs for the working people of New Jersey and across the country. I commend them for their commitment to exporting."

"IDT is committed to providing affordable communications to people around the globe. Thanks to the hard work of IDT's employees and the U.S. Department of Commerce, we've been able to do that," said Jim Courter, IDT's CEO. "As IDT grows and expands internationally the research and information provided by the Newark U.S. Export Assistance Center helps us to develop products and services that meet the needs of consumers world wide, especially those in emerging markets."

IDT's (www.idt.net) companies help people around the world communicate in new and better ways. Founder and Chairman Howard Jonas discovered that making international phone calls from foreign countries was priced at many times the cost of making the same calls from the United States. He realized that affordable international calling was a service needed by many people and IDT began delivering reliable, low-cost long distance services to overseas customers and has since successfully expanded to several other areas of telecommunications. The Newark U.S. Export Assistance Center has provided IDT with counseling, industry specific market research and trade leads, most recently in Africa.

Based in Newark, IDT employs 2000 people in New Jersey and has worked with the U.S. Commercial Service since 1999.

"On behalf of everyone at Maddak and the Landsberger family, I would like to thank the Department of Commerce for this prestigious award," said Joe Kelly. "I would also like to thank our friends at the Newark Export Assistance Center, in particular Carmela Mammas and Harvey Rubenstein. If it were not for their help and support, I would not be standing here today."

The MADDAK (www.maddak.com) division of Bel-Art Products (www.belart.com) specializes in healthcare rehabilitation products for the disability and rehabilitation markets. Based in Wayne, Maddak has 100 employees in New Jersey and most recently used the services of the Newark Export Assistance Center to enter the healthcare market in Ireland. This success was a result of Maddak's participation in a U.S. Commercial Service organized catalog showcase. As a direct result of export counseling and the utilization of various Commercial Service products and services, Maddak has reported an increase to market sale of its healthcare products to Japan. In addition to Ireland and Japan, the U.S. Commercial Service in the last two years has assisted Maddak expand to the following countries: China, Dominican Republic, France, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, Thailand, UAE and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Commercial Service is a U.S. Commerce Department agency that helps small and midsize U.S. businesses sell their products and services globally. The Newark U.S. Export Assistance Center is part of the agency's worldwide network, which includes 108 U.S. Export Assistance Centers throughout the United States and more than 150 international offices. For more information on the U.S. Commercial Service, please visit www.export.gov or call (973) 645-4682.