TOBB/ Ministiy of Foreign Affairs/ Rrepublic of Turkey Prime Ministry Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency - The Project on the Revitalization of the Palestinian Industrial Free Zone in Gaza
Completed project (June 2005 - December 2009)
The overall objective entailed the creation of a "center of excellence" in the border area between Gaza and Israel by addressing a number of binding constraints to investment and SME growth at the local level. The project also aimed to transfer Turkey's "organized industrial zone" model to Palestine through the provision of superior infrastructure and business development services to textile, apparel and furniture clusters. Palestinian Industrial Free Zone (PIFZ), formerly known as the Erez Industrial Estate, was operated by a private Israeli firm but with the disengagement of Israel from Gaza, the Industrial Estate was transferred to Palestine and the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority (PIEFZA). PIEFZA decided to contract the management of the Industrial Estate to a Turkish operator, founded by TOBB and donor organizations. The executing agency of the project was TEPAV. The target was to generate jobs for six thousand Gazan workers by the year 2010.
The first phase of the project, completed as of 2007 provided the following outcomes:
- Initiated and facilitated a business sector dialogue and communication mechanism across the business communities of Turkey, Israel and Palestine.
- Facilitated a tri-partite decision-making process for the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Turkey and Palestine and a Joint Declaration between Turkey and Israel for the project.
- Designed and implemented a comprehensive communication strategy with a view to ensure political support through organizing high profile and high visibility events; one of which included the participation of the three Presidents from the State of Israel (H.E Simon Peres), Palestinian National Authority (H.E. Mahmud Abbas) and the Republic of Turkey (H.E. Abdullah Gül) at TEPAV premises.
- Facilitated the participation of Israeli and Palestinian public sector officials in meetings that dealt with operational issues regarding the industrial estate such as security, tax, customs, trade facilitation etc.
- Secured funding from donors, including the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency and the Government of Japan (in addition to TOBB’s funding)
- Designed and implemented capacity building programs for the Palestinian Chamber System and the Industrial Estate Management Authority.
- Contracted out the engineering projects of the Industrial Estate (infrastructure rehabilitation, production facilities, and management/training buildings).
- Prepared the feasibility analysis for the Erez Industrial Estate.
- Conducted investment promotion events for introducing the investment opportunities to Turkish investors.
- Founded and registered the developer company that will be in charge of management of PIFZ.
The second phased of the project, completed as of December 2009 provided the following outcomes:
- Reviewed the alternative industrial sites in the West Bank and conducted pre-feasibility analysis for three site locations
- Drafted a concession agreement to be signed between a private company established by TOBB and TEPAV and the Palestinian National Authority.
- Drafted a security and trade facilitation protocol to be signed with the Israeli authorities to ease movement and access restrictions
- Ankara Forum
