A Letter from the CEO

Over the years, PalTrade has continuously contributed towards driving Palestinian exporter growth, facilitating a business enabling environment, as well as improving trade competiveness by providing support in the areas of export development, promotion, policy-making and capacity building.

PalTrade plays a vital role in identifying priorities for export development and improving Palestinian exporters’ level of competiveness in growing current destination markets, as well as identifying potential new markets. PalTrade continues to encourage new product development, as evident that there are currently products that are being exported today that did not exist 10 years ago.

The growth of Palestinian exporters relies heavily on the support of a business-enabling environment, which PalTrade continues to facilitate; including improving access to new markets, incentivizing Palestinian exporters, and attracting foreign investment.

Palestinian sectors are continuing to grow, and promising sectors include the services sector specifically the area of information, communication and technology (ICT).  We have a talented, young workforce, where borders are not needed for providing international services.  The tourism sector is another potential sector that can be further expanded, Palestine has a rich history and unique sites that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

PalTrade will continue to focus on the future of the Palestinian exporter, providing support to maintain current markets, encourage faster growth in expanding specific markets – such as the Gulf states – and identifying new markets. However, the cost of exporting is immense. While the private sector is investing, additional support is needed from both the government, as well as the donor community.

PalTrade is committed to identifying opportunities for aid and to facilitate the direction of these funds.  Additional reliance will be placed on trade representatives who have undergone training. These representatives will be mobilized in various countries around the world.  Our role is to ensure that the trade representatives have access to the private sector network and that trade representatives’ findings and recommendations are communicated, clearly and transparently, with our local entities.

The growth of our economy, as well as supporting the state-building process is promising, as PalTrade strives to unleash exporter potential and support our private sector in realizing it.

Ruwa Jabr

Chief Executive Officer, PalTrade