Translated by: Hayat Hernández

The idea of establishing a project of constructing a free industrial region in the Palestinian city Jenin have been on the horizon since 1999, but it has faced many obstacles along the way. Nevertheless, it was on the agenda again last year. In February, the Union of Chambers of Commodity and Exchanges in Turkey (TOBB) officially announced having the authority of the Turkish president “Ardogan” to transfer a big amount of money to Palestine in order to execute the project. In the following, the details on the industrial zone in Janine are being illustrated.

The geographic area and location

The industrial region extends on an 1100-acres area on a barren land north of Janine, which is 3 kilometers away. The region is best known for its strategic location along “Marj bin Amer” plain, famous for producing high quality fruit and vegetables, located between “Sheikh Hussein” passageway on the Jordan lands in the north, and Haifa’s port in the west.

The project phases

The executive process of this project which is held by Turkey and Germany, consists of two phases.

The first phase is funded by Germany with 24 million euros, including all of the exterior infrastructure of the industrial region, and it’s probable to be ready in the middle of this year.

The second phase, sponsored by Turkey with about 10 million dollars, including the interior infrastructure, and expected to start the work soon according to what the Palestinian Minister of Industry “Khaled Al-Asili” stated for the Anadolu news agency.

The Turkish and German role isn’t limited to only sponsoring the project, as the Turkish company for commerce and industrial chambers “Top base” which is in charge of the industrial region’s development, signed a franchise agreement to execute the project and make the fundamental plan, and is considered one of the most significant companies in the union of Turkish chambers of commerce and industry, running 38 industrial regions in turkey.

Additionally, the German role is based on proposing recommendations to the Palestinian side to seek solutions in terms of engineering in order to overcome the problem of choosing the convenient place to establish the sewer pumping station of the industrial region.

The German bank of development is working as well along the industrial region organization to build or buy 45 megawatts transformers and constructing 1700 meter long roads.

Moreover, the Turkish side which is represented by “Top Base”, along with the German presented by “Tempo”, are both working on studying the industries characteristics that suit this region in order to take into account the international health and safety measures so that the factories built are ecofriendly.

The aims of the industrial zone

According to Palestinian officiates, the study on the feasibility of the industrial zone indicates that it will allow 20 thousand job opportunities, 5 thousands of them will be direct and 15 thousand indirect occupations.

Furthermore, the industrial region in Janine would promote the Palestinian industrial production, thus it would enhance Palestine’s exports and improve its trading scale through the agreements between Palestine and the rest of the world, especially that this project is receiving the support from the EU and USA which abide to import the productions of the industrial region and marketing them without any taxes.

Along with the western upholding, the region is receiving a special Turkish interest as the Turkish Union of Chamber of Commerce and Industry have shown their willingness to construct textile and fabric factories and other industries as well, after a field visit they made to the region last month as a result of the Turkish-Palestinian agreement that includes establishing Turkish factories in the industrial zone.

The Turkish interest is driven by turkey’s willingness to promote the trading exchanges with the Palestinian region, as Turkey is considered the second biggest trading partner to Palestine due to the number of commercial exchanges between the two countries that reached 700 million dollars. In addition to that, Turkey is seeking the benefit of being close to Haifa’s port, which has a strategic location on the Mediterranean, through its investments in the industrial zone in Palestinian lands in order to ensure its access to the Arab markets.

A dream come true

Establishing an industrial area in Janine has always been a dream to Palestinians who didn’t lose the persistence of accomplishing it despite the 15 years since the idea was manifested, it’s an aim to Palestinians to promote their productive sector and export all their productions to the rest of the world.

Since the beginning of the last year, with the support of Turkey and Germany, the Palestinian dream of seeing the engines of their factories run in their lands is nearly coming true.