Palestinian programmers
Photo: AP
Gaza tech incubator hopes to encourage entrepreneurship
Palestinian Information and Technology Incubator, based in Gaza City, helps small business by providing office space, advice, and financial support.
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – At Alsisy’s women’s apparel store, customers who spend more than $15 leave with tickets for a lottery offering prizes ranging from electronics to a new car. Part of a new campaign called “Buy from us”, the idea is to help the densely-populated Gaza Strip battle a growing recession.
There are growing shortages of certain goods since Egypt closed off hundreds of underground smuggling tunnels that brought goods, from cement to spare cars, into Gaza. Electricity blackouts are frequent, and hundreds of small businesses have closed down, because of Israeli restrictions on export from Gaza.
"When we thought of 'Buy from us', we took in consideration the slowing economy here in the occupied Palestinian territory,” Ishaq Alewady, 27, the founder of Golden Bird, a consulting company, told The Media Line.
Golden Bird is housed at the Palestinian Information and Technology Incubator, PICTI, in Gaza City. PICTI is funded by several international organizations, including the US Agency for International Development, AID, and the British-based Oxfam. The idea is to provide office space and support to small companies to help get them off the ground.
The Gaza Strip, with about one-third of its 1.8 million residents living under the poverty line, and unemployment at 28 percent, seems a strange place for a technology incubator.
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But it is precisely here that PICTI is investing its energy, hoping that firms will use their services and then become independent.
“We stayed here at PICTI for one year, and now we have our own small office in Gaza City,” Alewady of Golden Bird told The Media Line. “For our current initiative of 'Buy from us' we have an angel investor paying for the campaign, including the grand prize of a new Hyundai Accent car.”
The coupons encourage shoppers to spend more and stimulate Gaza’s economy.
“Our investor for the initiative lives here in Gaza and he is keen to help and promote our idea,” Mohammad Alherbawi, one of Alewady’s partners in Golden Bird told The Media Line. “The more coupons we sell to shopkeepers here, the more our chances for success are. We have carried out a deliberate advertising campaigning throughout Gaza.”
Since 2008, the Palestinian Information and Technology Incubator, PICTI, has been supporting and funding new creative technological ideas in the Gaza Strip. PICTI’s main branch is in the West Bank.
At its office in Gaza City, PICTI hosts a series of small technology companies. For example, one university professor hopes to make electricity using radio waves.
"Last year, we funded 45 small initiatives like Golden Bird, each for an average of $5000, Abdallah Altahrwi, chief of programs with PICTI, told The Media Line. “This year, we are already funding 25 such projects. We plan to expand our office space, very soon, in order to host some other new programs.”
Seed funds for youth
Fadi Alesawi, PICTI’s director general, says the incubator offers help for recent university graduates and the unemployed in Gaza.the Gaza Strip.
"We provide a seed fund along for creative youth and help them connect with other companies,” Alwsawi said. “We never fund commercial businesses here – we only support ideas that are unique and that could open up new horizons.”
He said the goal is not necessarily to bolster Gaza’s economy overall. It is more to help Gaza’s youth become entrepreneurs.
“We encourage youth to be creative and work on strengthening their skills, instead of staying idle. Those who are successful, can extend their time with us from six months to one year,” he said. “We want to help them until they can find a place in the local market.”
Article written by Rami Almeghari.
Reprinted with permission from The Media Line.
