Palestinian Investment Conference Underway

Wednesday May 21, 2008 12:04 by Pennie Quinton - 1 of International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC Editorial Group

The Palestinian Investment conference launched today with a press conference lasting one hour.Organiser Dr Hassan Abu Libdeh gave statistics and answered  journalists' questons.  

Dr Hassan Abu Libdeh, Photograph Pennie Quinton

He said that the Palestinan investment conference had cost  3 million  US dollars, half of which was paid for by private Palestinan companies with the rest of costs made up by the Palestinan Authority.He said that 115 investors from Gaza had applied to take part in conference so far only 107 had been granted permission from israel to attend. 3 applicants had been refused out right and the others had applied late. At this stage 1200 people have registered for the conference 7% of conference participents are from Europe and North America, with around 60% coming from Arab countries outside Palestine,The rest of the participents were made up of Palestinian investors. He also said in interviews afterwoulds that the conference had been concieved and put together in just three months  so not all Palestinan projects were ready to be considered for investment because of time constraints.  

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