The Southern Regional Planning and Building Board has approved industrialist Stef Wertheimer's plan for a 2,500-dunam (625-acre) Israeli-Palestinian industrial park in the Eshkol Regional Council in the western Negev.
The industrial park will straddle the Israel-Gaza border near Kerem Shalom. Detailed planning of the industrial park will begin after the National Planning and Building Council approves it.
US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Palestinian Authority agency for industrial and free trade zones jointly drew up the plan and assessed the economic feasibility of the Palestinian industrial zone.
The Israeli industrial park is being promoted as a joint venture of Wertheimer and the Eshkol Regional Council, with the support of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
The Israeli industrial zone will include knowledge-intensive high-tech and automated metals and plastics factories, while the Palestinian industrial park will have food, textiles, electronics, software, and pharmaceutical factories. All the factories will be environmentally friendly, and most of the products, from both sides of the industrial park, will be exported.
The Israeli and Palestinian industrial parks will be built on the format of the Tefen and Omer industrial parks, and will include a college. Construction of the joint industrial park will be financed with international aid for promoting Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 1, 2004