Project profile — Improved Framework Conditions for Palestinian Businesses

The objective of this project is to promote sustainable economic growth by making it easier for Palestinian businesses, especially micro, small and medium-sized (MSMEs) firms, to operate effectively. The project is creating a better legal and regulatory environment for businesses by strengthening key laws, regulations and policies of the Palestinian Authority, including streamlining small business registration, licensing and certification. It also promotes enhanced cooperation between public institutions and the private sector. This project is being implemented in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and two local private sector organizations (the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, and the Palestinian Federation of Industries).

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Results achieved as of March 2014 include: (1) enhanced cooperation between public institutions and the private sector was promoted through public-private dialogue; (2) decentralization of the Ministry of National Economy’s business delivery services was finalized in all of the ministry’s 11 branch offices resulting in a more efficient and timely provision of services offered by the Ministry; for example, in 2013, 79 percent of corporate, trade registry, industrial licencing and intellectual property services to businesses were delivered by six of the Ministry’s decentralised offices, compared to only six percent in 2011; in addition, the Ministry’s average service provision time to Palestinian businesses was reduced from 7-14 days in 2012 to 1-2 days in 2013; (3) five ministry directorates now have a unified database that enables the ministry to better analyze information and report on it; (4) the policy and advocacy units for both the Palestinian Federation of Industries and the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce are operational and are representing interests of their members; (5) all regional chambers are connected through a unified management information system that enables the chambers to generate information and statistics for policy dialogue and to facilitate service delivery; (6) a gender unit was established at the Ministry of National Economy and gender units were established or revived at six chambers of commerce; and (7) the number of women-operated businesses registered with the chambers has increased from 587 in 2010 to 2,284 in 2013 after the chambers introduced a special category for micro businesses. These have contributed to improving the policy, legal and regulatory environment and access to quality services for Palestinian businesses.