September - November 2005 - Volume 2, Issue 1

Ambassador David Gross Visit to Palestine
Ambassador David A. Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State met with PITA’s Board of Directors and Members on 07 Sep. 2005 during his visit to Palestine. The meeting discussed the US Government Policies with regard to ICT and the Palestinian ICT Sector status, potential and challenges.
Among the issues discussed are:
1 - Israeli Control of the
1)Palestinian Spectrum
2)Importing and movement impediments
3)Technical Assistance needed in the areas of spectrum management, telecom regulator setup and operations, Interconnection, ICT scholarships and twining between American and Palestinian universities
4)American companies direct business relations with Palestinians not through Israelis. Ambassador Gross promised of extending support to the ICT sector and informed PITA about a training in the US followed by a 2-days-workshop in Palestine to address gaps specified especially in relation to telecom regulatory issues. Another meeting was held with the U.S. Consulate Commercial Attache` in which equipment seizure at Israeli ports was discussed and requested the U.S. interference to facilitate importation from the U.S. As a result of this meeting a monthly form of imported products is filled by PITA members and returned  to the consulate for follow up.

Palestine @ Gitex Dubai 2005
For the sixth year in a row the Palestinian ICT Sector participates in Gitex Dubai which is one of the strongest ICT exhibitions all over the world, GITEX Dubai, well known for its huge visitors & participants, in addition to it's
environment in doing business deals,
The Palestinian participation highlighted the latest
technology & services of four Palestinian companies.
1) Palestinian ICT Incubator (PICTI), incubating the following projects:
• Alburaq, Constructions Project Management System 
• ADDICTS 123 
• 360 HR
• Mobile Information Services – MobIS 
• Yooyaland portal 
2) Arab Technology Systems (ATS),
3)  Japan Technology Enterprise-J.T.E (Maslamani),  and
4) SAFAD Engineering.
In addition to the above participants in the Palestinian pavilion. JAFFA.NET and Arab Technology Systems (ATS) participated in Oracle World Pavilion in Gitex.
The sixth participation of the Palestinian Pavilion indicated that continuous presence at the same location and the same time brings tremendous publicity for the Palestinian IT sector in addition to the high number of leads generated and the quantity of actual sales as a consequence from these leads.  The feedback about the show has been very positive and the amount of literature distributed was very satisfactory to the organizers and the exhibitors. This participation has maintained client and supplier relationships transmitted a key message that the IT sector in Palestine is competitive and ready to serve the GCC region and finally it stimulated both exhibitors and organizers
The Palestinian Participation  was  organized by PITA and PalTrade.
Funded by IDB and USAID.
Pavilion Catalogue Sponsored by  PICTI.
Full report could be downloaded here

Digital Palestine 5th edition is out
The 5th edition of Digital Palestine Tabloid was published in September few days before Expotech. The edition featured several articles and reports on the ICT sector.
An interview with Dr. Sabri Saidam, Minister of TIT focused on the achievements and challenges facing the ICT sector in Palestine.  PITA is currently preparing for the next edition of Digital Palestine which should be out late December 2005. Interested PITA members and ICT professionals are encouraged to provide their input, articles, views on the ICT sector status, policies, achievements, impediments...etc. Companies and organizations interested in advertising in the next edition should contact PITA at info@pita.ps for rates and details.

Official logo of the PEI
www.pei.ps

PEI – Palestinian Education Initiative
The Palestinian Education Initiative which was launched last June in has established its offices in Ramallah and started to recruit staff to fill the different positions. Different working groups were formed to work on the different tracks as follows:
1.       Schools/District Development
2.       Life Long Learning in the context of community development 
3.       Industry Development
4.       Monitoring and Evaluation
The unclear structure, resources, expectations, in addition to the lack of a comprehensive plan and implementation approach was very much reflected on the slow development in the Industry Development Track and other planned milestones. In order to overcome this situation a unified vision, objectives and implementation methodology need to be designed and emphasized.
This may require building multi-stakeholder partnerships on the different layers of the project to realize the success and sustainability of the project. PITA Board of Directors held meetings with Minister of TIT and Dr. Badie Sartawi, PEI Project Manager to discuss status and ways to activate and achieve more progress on the Industry Development Track. A planning meeting will take place in Jericho between 20 and 22 Dec. 2005 which aims at sharing the vision of the project, discussing the different tracks and putting forward a comprehensive plan through a participatory approach and engagement of all stakeholders.

“The deal represents a remarkable victory for the United States and ICANN : only a month ago they were put on the back foot by an EU proposal that turned the world's governments against the US position.”

WSIS Phase II in Tunis
A Palestinian delegation was among the worldwide delegations that gathered in Tunis for the WSIS Phase II. The Palestinian delegation comprised of NGOs, Private Sector organizations, in addition to a high level governmental delegation headed by president Mahmoud Abbas, who was amazingly welcomed when he was called to deliver the speech of Palestine.
PTIA and PICTI in addition to ISOC.PS participated in the ICTIDAR Pavilion and delivered presentations on the ICT sector in Palestine and about the different functions and activities of each organizations. In addition to their attendance of different parallel events
and networking with other participants.
Apart from the Palestinian delegation a battle over internet control took place prior to the official opening of the summit.
 Quote from Kieren McCarthy who wrote on the topic:
The United States has won its fight to retain control over the internet, at least for the foreseeable future.
The world's governments in Tunisia finally reached agreement at 10.30pm last night, just hours before the official opening of the World Summit this morning. In the end, with absolutely no time remaining, a deal was cut.
That deal will see the creation of a new Internet Governance Forum, that will be set up next year and decide upon public policy issues for the internet. It will be made up of governments as well as private and civil society, but it will not have power over existing bodies. Equally, there will be no new oversight body for ICANN, or no new ICANN come to that. Instead, all governments have agreed to work within existing organizations. Effectively that will mean within the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN. Note the word "advisory" because, again, the GAC has no powers of control over ICANN.
Full story at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/16/us_wins_net_governance/

“The Moroccan IT Professionals Association expressed interest in hosting the Palestinian delegation.”

Palestinian Delegation visits Morocco
A study mission to Morocco was organized between 26 Sep and 1 Oct 2005 by MTIT and ICTIDAR/UNDP. PITA was represented in this mission through a board member. The delegation conducted meetings with Moroccan ICT officials and organizations, among them was the minister of transportation and IT and Moroccan IT Professionals Association (APEBI). As a result of these meetings; it was initially agreed to organize a trade mission to Morocco which should be comprised from Palestinian private ICT sector companies. The Moroccan IT Professionals Association expressed interest in hosting the Palestinian delegation. 
 
The main goal of the mission is to study the Moroccan market and potential opportunities for cooperation between the private sector of the two countries.

Full mission report is found here

Bisan Enterprise launch
From small accounting applications to enterprise systems, Bisan Systems offers the most comprehensive, cost-effective, dependable, and scalable solutions to the industry.  Bisan Systems has been a market leader in financial management applications serving a wide range of trade businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental and industrial institutions.  Bisan is well known for its advancement in technology, its understanding of the businesses current needs and future expansions as well as for its high level and professional support and service.
Bisan Enterprise Edition is the new innovation of Bisan Systems Ltd. launched a press conference the first day of Expotech 2005
Exhibition. Bisan Enterprise is a financial management package with various modules serving small, medium, and large size industries.  Bisan Enterprise is based on Object Oriented Technology using the state of the art Java Language.  For more information on Bisan Enterprise Edition check www.bisan.ps

“The Committee is to serve as the forum for public private partnership.”

Private Public Sector Advisory Committee
The ICT Sector Coordination Committee was formed and called for a first meeting on 10/10/2005.  The committee is comprised from the following parties:
MTIT, MNE, MoP , UNDP/PAPP, ISOC.PS, PITA, PICTI, PEI, PICTI
The committee should serve as the forum for public private partnership. In the meeting Dr. Sabri gave a brief update on the different projects. Those included the following:
PC fund PC for Jerusalem Falastinieh Project (press conference) TRA (file resides at the hands of the Ministerial Economic Committee) PEI Euromed Connect E-Gov, El-Irsal Tower GCC, Introducing Competition in the Telecom Mkt. The committee did not meet since then.  PITA members who would like PITA to address any concerns in the committee should send their views and suggestions in writing to info@pita.ps

Open Source Debate in Palestine…
The debate between supporters and opponents of Open Source Software has just started in Palestine. The PNA official position as stated in the approved ICT Strategy is to “disseminate and promote the culture of open source software especially those that could be further developed” . Both advocators and opponents compared Open Source with Propriety Software in terms of reliability, security, cost effectiveness, maturity…etc. Yet, the PNA did not propose  a
clear plan that interprets what the ICT strategy has stated.  With the fact that Open Source is not becoming an international trend only but also widely spreading, there remain many unanswered questions:
Is the PNA going to only encourage or adopt Open Source Software? What is the national policy in this regard?
What are the steps that Palestine should make to migrate from Propriety Software to Open Source -if the decision is to do so-?
What gaps need to be addressed immediately?
How this will affect the private sector development? What are the opportunities that we need to study?
What are the experiences and policies of neighboring countries?
All of this and more will be discussed in an internal workshop for PITA members in December.

“The new plan will focus on new membership services and will propose new policy interventions.”

PITA 2006 Action Plan and Budget
PITA is currently working on the findings of the membership needs assessment survey which was conducted in 2005. The input of this assessment will represent major input to the 2006 action plan. The full report in addition to the first draft of the 2006 plan will be sent to all members for their review and comments.
This exercise will help PITA in setting up its program priorities, planning future activities, and to improve the value of the membership through providing relevant and needed services that would contribute to filling the identified gaps.
 
It will also be very helpful for the next Board of Directors which will be elected for the 2006/2007 term of office. The next General Assembly Meeting and Board elections are due late January 2006. The final date of this event will be decided in coordination the MoNE and after the finalization of all required administrative and financial report. It is worth mentioning that the current Board of Directors worked extensively to decrease the financial deficit of PITA which was successfully achieved late 2005.  We hope the next Board of Directors will build of the achievements of the current board and take PITA to a better position on all levels.

ADSL New Price Structure
Dr. Sabri Saidam Minister of TIT held a press conference during Expotech to announce with PalTel management the new ADSL price structure and services.
 
The core news was about new decreased tariffs of ADSL connections, and the introduction of a new “economic” speed.
 
Although any reduction in price is good and always of benefit to the end user. Yet, the end user needs more options, more services, better quality, and more reductions especially that the new decreased rates are still a lot higher than rates in many neighboring countries.
 
The end users as well as the ICT Community need feedback on the following:
 
a.       ADSL Static IPs
b.       Regulatory Authority status and future plans
c.       Introduction of new mobile operator
d.       PNA plans after the current operator exclusivity concludes
a.       Internet Market liberalization plans
b.       New services, WIFI, WIMAX, wireless..
 
To conclude, we thank our minister for his efforts to launch many initiatives to effectively introduce ICT as a development tool in the public sector. But we believe there is a lot to be done in terms of re-structuring the ICT sector and making it a better sector for everyone to compete and invest in freely.

IJMA3: Union of Arab ICT Association Meeting
Ijma3 members held a meeting in Beirut at Vendome Hotel - Rawche  on 10 Nov 2005 with the participation of Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Palestine, Iraq, Morocco, Bahrain and Lebanon. The meeting aimed to review the union by-laws and history, status in addition to 2006 plan of action.
PITA was represented through Mr. Ala’ Alaeddin, board member. The meeting was fruitful and built stronger contacts with the different Arab Associations. One major achievement for PITA is that all member association expressed their strong interest in facilitating PITA’s members’ access to their countries. This is
important because many of PITA members especially those who have business relations or opportunities in the Arab world.  PITA will further follow up with IJMA3 and its member associations to initiate a systematic way of dealing with individual entry request to the member Arab countries.
www.ijma3.org

Expotech: exploring opportunities for a Gaza version
With the signing of and entering into the official implementation phase of the Rafah crossing agreement which will also allow movement between the West Bank and Gaza through special convoys;  PITA is examining and exploring opportunities of organizing Expotech ICT Exhibition in Gaza. In order to make a realistic decision PITA is consulting with the PNA related parties and is waiting to evaluate the effectiveness of the convoys and the passing of the equipment through the different crossing points. Many ICT companies expressed interest in Expotech Gaza especially those who would like to establish presence there after being denied access to Gaza for many years.  Many Gazan ICT companies would like also to have Expotech organized in Gaza for the first time to re-activate their presence and promote their services. In addition to that they hope to re-position Gaza on the regional ICT Map. 

Members joined PITA In 2005

1. Number One Source
NOS specialized in Electronics and Electrical Equipment for Home and Office like Backup Power, Renewable Energy, Passive and Active Cooling systems .
http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=114

2. Link Information Technology Corporation
Link IT focused in IT Advanced computer training and IT Solutions plus to other business activity like Software Development & Applications, Networking and Computer Hardware. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=117 

3. Star 2000 Broadcast & Professional Equipment
Is a Sales and Services Company specialized in the Audio /Video Systems, they also provides all the necessary services to its clients including training, supervision.
http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=118

4. Advanced Business Machine LTD. (ABMC)     
ABM is dealing in providing Networking Solutions; ABM is an HP Business Partner. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=120

5. Turbo Computer & Software Co. Ltd.
Turbo is a professional design firm, they also dealing with Internet & Web Service Providing. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=122

6. Al-Jarmaq Comp. & Elect. Services
Al Jarmaq is a major provider of Data Collection Solutions and Security Systems, including Time and Attendance hardware and Software, Access Control systems, Point of Sales Equipment’s and Systems, and many other systems.

7. Trusted Systems for computer & IT Co.
Trusted Systems is an IT related Company specialized in Software development and IT consultation. (TS) Company center is located in the middle of Hebron city in the West Bank in Palestine. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=126

8. TDM Trading Co.
TDM Trading is an authorized dealer for NETGEAR. TDM is offering to sell or buy refurbished Cisco Routers and switches, IBM, DELL, HP and SUN UNIX or Intel servers and PC’s. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=129
 
9. Al-Andalus Software Development & technology
ASD is a Software and Information Technology firm specializes in the fields of Information systems, Management Information System and software solutions.
http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=128

10. Fusion for Internet & Communication Systems.
Fusion co. main activities are concentrating on internet, wired and wireless, communication field.
http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=124

11. Palestinian System Development Technology ltd.
PSD Technology Ltd is the Epson Agent in Palestine provides Document-printing and scanning solutions, Graphic printing, Projection solutions &   Point-of-sale solutions. http://www.pita.ps/memberdetails.php?mi=131

12. Ghata for Technology and Investment
Ghata co. main activities are concentrating on Office systems and their appendices. http://www.ghatatec.com
 

WEBSITE: www.pita.ps Send us your news to news@pita.ps