Main reports: In January 2010 medium term business confidence in the West Bank was higher than at any point in the previous year. 74% of businesses in the West Bank expected production to increase opposed to 4% who expected a decline.
A delegation of 32 Palestinian finance and business professionals took part in the first Palestine Securities’ Exchange (PSE) road show to London in March. Over 30 B2B meetings were held with major international investment funds.
The governments of Brazil and Argentina have agreed to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Mercosur, the largest South American trading bloc, and the Palestinian Authority.
The cornerstone of the Bethlehem Multi Purpose Industrial Park (BMIP) was laid on 8 April. BMIP is a French-Palestinian initiative with €10m of funding from the French government for infrastructure.