With the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the ‎Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA) and the Israel-America Chamber of ‎Commerce held on Tuesday the first Israeli Palestinian Outsourcing workshop, Isra-Pal IT ‎‎2008, at Airport City in Israel. ‎

Around 60 representatives of Israeli and Palestinian IT companies attended Isra-Pal IT 2008, ‎which focused on the Palestinian IT outsourcing capacity and business networking in order to ‎find new export markets for the Palestinian Information and Computer Technology (ICT) ‎sector. ‎

Isra-Pal IT 2008, which was opened with welcoming remarks by David Harden, USAID’s Acting ‎Mission Director, Ihab Jabari, Executive Director of PITA, and Tamar Guy, Executive Director ‎of Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, focused on three main topics. The first part of the ‎workshop dealt with the Palestinian ICT sector by profiling success stories through testimonials ‎of Palestinian software houses. The second session dealt with the importance of outsourcing ‎for the Israeli and Palestinian IT companies, and the final session highlighted best practices ‎and approaches for attracting venture capital investment. ‎

The IT workshop was part of the USAID supported Palestinian Enterprise Development (PED) ‎project, which aims to develop Palestinian private companies and promote investment. The ‎program assists small and medium enterprises in identifying and training employees and ‎enhancing the private sector business environment by working closely with public and private ‎sector stakeholders with emphasis on trade policies, regulatory reform, market access and ‎good business practices. In addition, the program helps companies pursue progressive ‎economic practices and policies and engage with Israeli counterparts.‎

Since 1993, USAID has provided more than $1.7 billion in U.S. economic assistance to ‎Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza via projects designed to combat poverty, improve ‎health and education, improve water services and infrastructure, create jobs, and promote ‎democracy and good governance.‎