Economic Growth and Trade

Overview             

USAID assistance to the West Bank stone and marble industry helps provide more jobs.

USAID provides assistance to Palestinian enterprises that generate employment and pursue economic opportunities in domestic, regional, and global markets. Projects increase the availability of investment capital; provide targeted technical assistance and access to improved technologies and management skills; improve the movement of people and cargo through crossing points between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza; and eliminate regulatory constraints by developing partnerships between the private sector and the Palestinian Authority. In the past year, USAID provided cost-sharing grants to 37 businesses in the West Bank and leveraged an additional $24 million in investment from the private sector, creating more than 1,000 new jobs and increasing revenues by $30 million. In addition, USAID’s support of loans to 33,000 micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises created an estimated 50,000 jobs.

Goals

• Increase growth, economic opportunities, and job creation in the West Bank and Gaza
• Improve the regulatory environment for the Palestinian economy
• Diminish the impact of obstacles to the movement of both goods and people
• Increase access to credit, insurance, and other financial services
• Prevent money laundering and other financial crimes

Active Projects

Trade Facilitation Project

The Trade Facilitation Project aims to stimulate trade in the West Bank and Gaza and facilitate better cargo movement through crossing points by supporting facility and equipment upgrades on the Palestinian side of selected crossing points. 

Investment Climate Improvement

This project provides technical assistance to respond to the need for reform in the Palestinian business-enabling environment as well as in the fiscal sector. A major goal of the project to achieve the policy and institutional reforms required for World Trade Organization observership status.

Competitiveness Project

The Competitiveness Project aims to improve access to international markets for Palestinian small and medium enterprises and enable these firms to better meet market requirements through improved design, quality, and packaging of products. A secondary focus will be to improve access to services through the development of local business associations and business service providers. The project also intends to work with firms in Gaza to enable them to remain in business and, ultimately, to return to the international market when conditions allow.