מתנחלים בדובאי: משלחת מהשומרון יצאה לאיחוד האמירויות

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan landed a few days ago in Dubai at the head of a delegation of factory managers, companies, and businessmen from Samaria.

Samaria is the first municipal authority in Israel to arrive in Dubai at the head of a business delegation, and did so on the first commercial flight departing from Ben Gurion Airport to Dubai.

Among the manufacturers who joined the delegation: Boaz Shitzer - CEO of AST, a company that provides technological solutions for desalination and water recycling worldwide, Moshe Lev Ran - VP of Tuito Plast from the Barkan industrial zone, which specializes in manufacturing accessories for air conditioning and energy saving, and Yair Wolovich, representing 30 agronomy companies and development of crops in Israel, especially in Samaria, as well as a representative of the Central Samaria Development Company, the director general of the council, Amitai Roitman, who is currently establishing the Samaria Municipal Economic Company.

In a marathon of business meetings hosted by the delegation, he met with about 20 businessmen and representatives of large companies in the fields of agriculture, pesticides, and plastics, as well as with companies interested in rapid process technologies, due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced the UAE to rely on local crops. The Israelis will also meet with representatives of pest control companies and some of the largest and most powerful investment companies in the United Arab Emirates.

The businessmen from Samaria heard about the unique needs of the area and discussed cooperation mainly in the fields of agronomy, crops, and water desalination.

"Samaria is also at the forefront in the fields of industry and trade, a pioneer in forging ties and creating international collaborations," explains Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council. "Samaria's strategy is to lead everywhere, to be the first at every opportunity - for building Samaria and developing Samaria, the construction of roads and the economy are what drive the development of the State of Israel in general and Samaria in particular.

"In my view, a significant part of the role of the Samaria Regional Council is to create the engines of economic growth, exports, and business leverage both at the level of the localities and at the level of industry. Industry in Samaria should also receive the best service from the Council in opening new markets for exports and promoting economic ties, for the benefit of about 300 companies based in Samaria whose annual exports are hundreds of millions of dollars a year."

Dagan said, "There is an opportunity here for both sides to profit from collaborations that can be created from normalization with such a strategic and important neighbor. The United Arab Emirates is an advanced country at the forefront of development and investment and it is our honor to create trade and industry ties with them."

Emirati businessman Yusuf Beidon: "On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to welcome the head of the Samaria Regional Council, and the delegation that met us today; it is an honor, especially after the peace agreement with Israel was signed. This is an exciting moment for all of us. Thank G-d for our leaders who brought us to this place.

"We thank them for making this meeting possible. I could not believe that I would get to see this thing in my life. For us, brothers and sisters from both sides, from Israel and Dubai, to sit around the same table. it is a great honor. This has both economic and medical implications. To learn from each other and earn from each other.

"Understanding what is happening in Samaria and the variety of people who live there, the coexistence that exists there between Arabs and Israelis who work side by side, in the same factories, earn the same salaries, celebrate holidays and work side by side, it is a great honor to be here with the head of Samaria Regional Council who advances all of this."

Abdullah al-Sawidi, a senior at National in Dubai: "It is an honor for me to be here, to meet the first Israeli delegation to the UAE and Dubai, I am sure there will be economic cooperation here in all areas. Thank you very much for coming here."

There are three industrial areas in Samaria, where hundreds of companies and businesses bring in hundreds of millions of shekels a year, export their produce to the whole world, employ Israelis alongside Arabs who work side by side under equal conditions and deal in plastics, recycling, metal, and electronics and various technological developments.

The first commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Dubai on which the business delegation left Samaria was a Fly Dubai flight organized by the Emirate Saba company and Gaia Tourism and marketed by tourism businessman Ephraim Kamissar and accompanied by strategic consultant Kobi Sella.