Middle East Commercial Center Steering Committee Convenes in Nazareth

Executives from the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce, members of the Middle East Commercial Center (MECC) Steering Committee, hosted the committee for a follow-up discussion concerning the MECC conference, which took place in February in Jordan. The committee is preparing for the next conference, scheduled for October of this year. In the upcoming days, the committee will meet the Israeli delegation to the Jordanian conference to increase their involvement in the professional sub-committees.

The MECC is an initiative spearheaded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that includes Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, each of which established a steering committee based upon the local American Chambers of Commerce. Each committee includes local economic entities. The companies that joined the initiative identified four central issues: the creation of special economic zones; entrepreneurship development; natural resources and the movement of goods/market access, all of which are subject to professional committees, as well as professional training, health and tourism.

Pictured from left: Hani Elfar, Executive Director of the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce; Hassan Abu Ahmad, a member of the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Yair Hirshfeld, Founder of the Economic Cooperation Foundation; Dessislava Roussanova, Inter Media; Amer Saleh, the Chairman of the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce; Advocate Yossi Ben-Dror, Committee Chairman; Baruch Mazor, CEO, Israeli Palestinian Chamber of Commerce; David Simha, President, Israeli Palestinian Chamber of Commerce; Danny Catarivas, head of the Division of Foreign Trade and International Relations at the Manufacturers Association and Ronit Benbasat Rom, Chamber CEO.

IPCC Various Activities

Furthering connections between the young businesspeople

One of our central activities has been directed towards widening and deepening the connection between young businesspeople through the organization of several meetings between the interested entrepreneurs. A declared objective of the Chamber is to produce joint ventures and mutual business between these young businessmen. For this purpose, our Chamber is cooperating with the Association of Importers and Exporters on the Palestinian side (the PIEC). To our gratitude they have already presented a list of fifty five businesses that have confirmed themselves their interest in participating and initiating cross-border business relations with the Israeli market. Fifty five potential companies and independent businesses have stressed to the Chamber their willingness to cooperate with the Israeli counterparts. 

Cooperation in ‘water and sewerage’ fields

In addition, the Chamber is a tight partner to the organization of several meetings in the fields of water and sewerage between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians, starting on January 12th 2014 and ending 4 days later. The workshop pivoted around rural aspects, and basic technological tools for water and sewerage systems were exposed to the attendant businesspeople as a basis to increase effectiveness and achieve better results.

As described by the event agenda, the topic was centered on the usage of Constructed Wetland technologies for the upgrading of rural regions wastewater to the quality level demanded for irrigation and for streams recharging.

Fruitful discussions were conducted to address regional water issues, compact solutions for Waste Water Treatment, advanced Water & Waste Water Filtration Solutions, control solutions in the Water Cycle, sustainable water integrated management and so forth. All of it was conducted in a framework of aiming for regional cooperation in these crucial areas that clearly concern very much the Middle Eastern countries.

The Forum of the Middle East Commercial Center – Initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce

Also, the Chamber has been, and will continue to be, actively involved in all the meetings organized in the context of the Forum of the Middle East Commercial Center. A forum organized by the American Chamber of Commerce as part of its foreign relations performances, with the character of non-governmental initiative, but rather as an independent enterprise of the Chamber itself. The Forum encloses the participation of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and the Palestinian Authorities. The project goes clearly aligned with the overall Carry initiative in the Middle East. Through it, it is mainly aimed to develop several regional projects that will influence and support the respective countries to move forward in the different fields of discussion and cooperation. A number of meetings have already been conducted in Jordan and Turkey, in which the representatives of all 4 countries and the representatives of the Palestinian Authority have been present and participating. Furthermore, four different committees were created to address the following areas: movement of goods—market access, entrepreneurship development, special economic zones, and natural resources cooperation. A future meeting is already planned for February 25th-26th 2014 in the Dead Sea, Jordan. Concretely, the Israeli-Palestinian Chamber is assigned a role as part of the Steering Committee together with the American Chamber, the ECF, The Manufacturers Association of Israel, the ECI, and various representatives of the private sector.  

IPCC President’s visit to Japan

It is definitely to be highlighted the recent visit of the Chamber’s President, David Simha, to Japan as a representative of the commercial sector of Israel. This invitation was issued in the context of the Forum of supportive countries to Palestine in East Asia, which was leaded by Japan this year. Israel was granted a position of observer at the meeting, although not yet as a voter of decisions. This event was an exceptional opportunity for the Israeli-Palestinian Chamber to present itself, its objectives, the efficacy of its activities, its accomplishments till present and its future projects, for it to get the support from the Forum members. 

2013 Annual Board Meeting

On the 27th October 2013, a crucial meeting took place for the Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce. On the first plane, the General Assembly of the Chamber was created as composed of approximately thirty of the people involved in its activities. In this meeting participated varied relevant Governmental Ministries Representatives, the Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the Regional Cooperation Ministry, of the Israeli Economic Organizations, of the Manufacturers Association, the Union of Commercial Chambers, representatives from the Private Sector, the Peres Center for Peace, the ECF and multiple other businesspeople.

The meeting took place on behalf of the purpose to retarget the activities of the Chamber in the recent period. The main objective is to place the Chamber as the focal point of all those–both individuals and state and non-state organizations who deal with the Palestinians in the economic and business sphere, at any possible level of the trade relations between Israel and the Palestinians. As well, a concise and detailed review of the Chamber’s activities conducted thus far has been made at the meeting and, most importantly, the calendar of activities of the year 2014 was defined at the same time. 

The new CEO, Baruch Mazor, was chosen and entered his office term immediately after. And David Simcha, the President of IPCC, has stressed the importance of specifically addressing the issues that strengthen the Israeli side of the relations vis-à-vis the Palestinian side.

This constituted an extremely fruitful meeting that, in a way, has served as a cornerstone in the Chamber’s lead, activities and orientation given the change of the office head. 

 

Objectives of the Chamber

In the business relations-building process the Chamber never leaves behind its central emphasis on developing the overall the relations between the Israelis and Palestinians. However, it is first and foremost important for the IPCC to focus on first serving the interests of the Israeli side vis-à-vis the Palestinian one, in their trading and commercial activities. This has been one of the most highlighted objectives of the organization.

The second target of the Chamber, which is already taking place, is the quick shift towards being the focal point structure of the multi-organizational business network within the Palestinian sector. We constantly work on being the central body that coordinates the majority of activities that have to do with the promotion of business relations with the Palestinians. We are the focal point for a vast range of active organizations in the field as the promoters of their operational plans.

The Chamber will continue to be the body in charge of the removal of obstacles, attempting to resolve the logistical and procedural problems that cross-border dynamics face; namely, permits, passages, infrastructure, and more. In short, we serve as a main catalyze body, a block opener, to the business relations amongst the two partners. 

B2B Meeting

Another B2B meeting, organized through cooperation of IPCC, the Peres Center for Peace, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Tel Aviv, the Manufacturers Association of Israel and the PalTrade, took place in Tel Aviv on 29 May 2012. Thirty Palestinian food company representatives met with more than fifty Israeli food company representatives and other companies related to food production. Before the joint meeting, the Israeli company representatives enjoyed a variety of presentations from Lieutenant Colonel Salameh Zahar Adin – the head of the economic branch at the Civil Administration – about the economic situation in Judea and Samaria; Mr. Itzhak Gal – a researcher from Tel Aviv University; Mr. Roberto De La Rocca – a manager in the Israeli Super Sal chain; and Mr. Ibrahim Bashir from the Rushdie Food Industry – a senior businessman in the Israeli food industry with strong existing trade with the Palestinian market. All the participants reported that the meeting was very productive and expressed their satisfactions with meetings of this sort.

Business Visit to Ramallah

At April 30th an Israeli group contain 35 Israeli Business man and women visit Ramallah. The group visit in a business compound, belong to a Palestinian business man. The Palestinian invites Israeli company to open permanent stands for their company at the compound, in order to expose their products to the Palestinian market. During the visit, the Israelis walked in the street, met with people and had lunch in a local restaurant. The Israelis was very happy to visit in the West Bank and meet with Palestinians and off course to learn more about business opportunity at the West Bank.

 
This kind of visit is not happened on a regular base, and it consider as one of the best services the IPCC giving to the privet sector in Israel with all concern to the Palestinian market.

IPCC Breakfast club

Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted another Breakfast Club Event on 17 April 2012, where keynote speaker and former Israeli minister, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke about security challenges in the Middle East. In collaboration with Portland Trust, the Peres Center for Peace and the Ministry for Regional Cooperation, the IPCC also launched the Palestinian Business Directory at the meeting. The Palestinian Business Directory is a compilation of business contacts from a large variety of sectors in the West Bank that will enable easier communication between Israeli and Palestinian business counterparts, and facilitate further business engagements and transactions between the two. Seventy participants were present at this event.