Palestine Development and Investment Company

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PALESTINE DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT COMPANY

Palestinian holding company, registered as a limited liability corporation in Liberia, founded in October 1993 following the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords. Founded by Palestinian businessmen such as Hassib al-Sabbagh, Abdul-Mohsin Qattan, and Munib al-Masri, the Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO) raised initial capital of $172 million, to be invested in the Palestinian autonomous territories "to provide competitive financial returns to investors while directing new capital towards projects that would create new job opportunities to improve the standard of living of Palestinian people." It has a number of subsidiaries and affiliates in the tourism, poultry, electronics, real estate, telecommunications, and financial industries (one subsidiary operates the Palestinian stock exchange). Its various businesses have invested over $500 million since 1993. Its outlook, however, was dependent on both Israeli goodwill and the expectation of a "deepening of the peace process," based on which it expected "a substantial peace dividend, with the whole region likely to witness a macroeconomic resurgence" (all quotes from www.padico.com). Instead its businesses have stagnated as the economy of the territories has declined since the beginning of the al'Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.


SEE ALSO Aqsa Intifada, al-;Oslo Accords.

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