Pal-Think airs three radio episodes on entrepreneurship among Palestinian youth

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, held three radio episodes on the local Zaman radio to discuss micro entrepreneurial enterprises in the Gaza Strip, within the project “Strengthening entrepreneurship for Palestinian youth”, which aims to instil the culture of entrepreneurship among youth to empower them economically through establishing their own enterprises, contributing to the rise of the Palestinian economy.

Taking part in the first episode, titled “Opportunities for strengthening micro entrepreneurial enterprises in the Gaza Strip”, carried out on Thursday 13 October, were Dr Raed Hellis, consultant on economic and development issues, and the youth activists Ibrahim al-Tartouri and Abdullah al-Baba.

They shed light on the importance of micro-enterprises in the Palestinian economy, the ways of directing young people toward them, the challenges and obstacles facing them, the causes of some of their failures in the Gaza Strip, and the mechanisms of strengthening them.

During the second episode, held on Sunday 16 October under the title “The challenges facing small enterprises in the Gaza Strip”, Dr Mahmoud Issa, consultant on economic and development issues, and the youth activists Sundus Sabra and Raneen Farajallah discussed the concept of entrepreneurial work and entrepreneurial enterprises and their importance to the Palestinian economy.

They spoke of the varied challenges and obstacles facing entrepreneurial enterprises in the Gaza Strip — foremost those concerning the policies and legislation governing entrepreneurship, the quality of higher, vocational, and technical education, the difficulty entrepreneurs face in reaching funding sources and foreign markets, and finally the social and cultural challenges.

In the final episode, carried out on 20 October under the title “National policies for strengthening youth entrepreneurial enterprises”, Yahya Qaoud, researcher in political science and public policy, and youth activist Mustafa Qanou spoke at length about the national policies and existing laws that strengthen young people's entrepreneurial enterprises, the extent of their application, and the ways of strengthening them to advance them in the Gaza Strip.

They discussed the importance of investing in human capital, establishing an entrepreneurship observatory in Palestine, enacting modern laws suited to the age, developing the educational system to close the wide gap between higher-education institutions and the labour market, and searching for work opportunities in new markets online.

This project comes within Pal-Think's efforts, continuing since 2007, in societal reconciliation and in empowering and supporting youth by training them in important subjects the Palestinian universities in Gaza lack — such as entrepreneurship and the writing of research and policy papers — in addition to its tireless pursuit of breaking the cultural blockade imposed on the Strip by involving them in repeated dialogue sessions with economic experts, decision-makers, and Western, Arab, and Palestinian thinkers.