Palestinian high tech is trying to recover from the years of the intifada, and copy Israel’s success. But Palestinian high tech suffers from a lack of investment in large ventures.
ExpoTech 2005 - The Palestinian ICT Exhibition was held in Ramallah last week with the participation of 36 Palestinian information technology companies. The first Palestinian high-tech incubator, the fifth of its kind in the Arab world, was the outstanding exhibit at ExpoTech. The incubator, which began operating last year, displayed four projects for remote learning, network management, and GSM services.
Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA), run by acting director Safa Abdel Rahman, has 75 members with 4,600 employees. Its two largest members are PalTel Palestine Telecommunications Co. - Itisalat (PSE:PALTEL) and Palestine Cellular Communication Ltd. (Jawwal), with 2,500 employees. Most PITA members are hardware, Internet, and website development companies. A minority are software companies.
Dr. Mashour Abu-Daka, a senior official in the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Communications, said there was very little cooperation with Israel in high tech, partly because of Israeli security concerns. “Israel wants only cheap labor from the Palestinians, while we want to profit from its experience, and promote cooperation in software and even in R&D,” he said, adding that in his opinion, the main problems in Palestinian high tech were its reliance on small projects, and the absence of substantial investment, except for PalTel and Jawwal.
The Palestinian Authority is trying to promote two high-tech projects: a $80-100 million project for the computerization of ministries and public services, which is in the planning stage; and the computerization of education and remote online learning, with the support of the World Economic Forum.
Graduates of Palestinian universities currently have no problem finding high-tech jobs, but without increased investment, unemployment could become a problem.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 6, 2005