Posts tagged business
West Bank draws Canadian entrepreneurs - The Globe and Mail
“I’ll never forget sitting in [a] sketchy warehouse in Tel Aviv, with $50,000 on my lap, my lawyer by my side and the shipping company on standby waiting for us to make the exchange,” he recalls.
Starting and running a business in a conflict zone comes with its own set of hurdles: political tensions, bureaucracies, trade barriers, checkpoints, telecommunications obstacles, along with many of the other usual difficulties of working in foreign countries.
They add to the challenge for young entrepreneurs already on a steep learning curve.
But Mr. Al Sabawi, who launched the first geothermal energy company in the Middle East, is among the Canadians who have decided to try their hand at setting up business in the West Bank and Gaza, believing in the need to strengthen the Palestinian private sector. They are also savvy enough to know a good market opportunity when they see it.
“ Perhaps the difference between Steve Jobs and the ‘visionaries’ at other great companies was his ability to not only see what the future of technology could be, but to work toward that vision without obstruction.”
