IDF Holds Business Seminar for PA Merchants

The IDF's Civil Administration, in collaboration with the Ashdod Port Company, held a business seminar on Sunday for the benefit of dozens of merchants from the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria. The seminar, which introduced the merchants to Israeli port procedures, was held at the Ashdod seaport.

The 45 Arab merchants who took part in the seminar are leading businessmen involved in the import and export of goods in the PA. Their goods and products currently pass through the Ashdod port facilities on their way to market. The PA businessmen learned about the Ashdod Port Company's history and seaport procedures, toured the various facilities, and met with senior port officials and company representatives.

The last such seminar held by the Civil Administration took place about five years ago. The security situation in the intervening years and the existence of a Hamas-led government in the PA made the holding of such seminars impossible, according to IDF officials. However, the Peres Center for Peace, nominally headed by President Shimon Peres, held a series of two-day seminars on the chain of supply for PA businessmen during 2005, 2006 and 2007. The Peres Center's "Chain of Supply" Seminars held in September and November 2005 included a tour of Ashdod Port, during which the participants viewed the port facilities and the process that their cargo undergoes.

Representatives of the Civil Administration noted that coordination has recently increased between Israeli and PA civilian authorities. The tour of the Ashdod port is part of these recent developments, officials explained. The Civil Administration sees the Ashdod port seminar as an important tool to increase connections between Israeli and PA business leaders, which officials see as an influential factor in the economies of both Israel and the PA.

Head of the Civil Administration's economic division, Lt.-Col. Doron Segal, explained that the port visits will lead to "an increase in the merchandise that goes through the port and to an improvement in the PA economy."