A major investment conference kicked off Wednesday in the West Bank holy city of Bethlehem as Palestinian organizers hope to draw billions of dollars via projects.
Foreign and finance ministers and more than 1,000 businessmen from all over the world are arriving in the West Ba France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt and ministers and bankers from Jordan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Britain and Greece are among the participants in the event.
Palestinian Minister of Economy Kamal Hassouna opened the conference and said the event is intended to "reflect the real image of the economic situation and the mutual work between the Palestinian private sector companies and international businessmen."
"It also aims at encouraging investment projects to help increase the gross national product and providing job opportunities for the unemployed and new graduates," Hassouna added.
But Palestinian experts fear the outcomes of the conference will be difficult to apply on the ground due to the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and the blockage on the Gaza Strip.
Nasser al-Laham, a Palestinian analyst, reminded that Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) signed Paris Agreement in 1993 which stipulates that the PNA can only import via Israeli seaports and crossings.
"If a Sudanese businessman wants to donate watermelons for Gaza Strip, Israel will force him to transport the melons via Israeli seaport and he will pay the customs and taxes, so the price of themelons will be higher than its price in Israel," al-Laham wrote inan article published on the Palestinian media.
Palestinian officials say the preparations have completed to host the first such conference which is expected to help revive the Palestinian economy and provide job opportunities for tens of thousands of unemployed Palestinians.
Riyadh al-Maliki, information minister of the Palestinian caretaker government, said "the necessary arrangements for the arrival of the delegations to Bethlehem were taken."
The PNA organizes the conference backed by the international Quartet of Middle East peace players. The Quartet comprises the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.
Last week, the Palestinian government said about 50 projects and enterprises would be presented in the conference, hoping that the Arab and Western investors will be involved into parts of these projects which worth 2 billion dollars.
Businessman from the Gaza Strip succeeded to arrive to Bethlehem after arrangement by the Palestinian Presidency. Israel closes all crossing points into Gaza and imposes economical sanctions on the territory since Hamas took over the strip by force about a year ago.
nk to join the three-day Palestine Investment Conference
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment