The Palestinians say the Jericho Agro-Industrial Park is their project Ramallah – Nihad Al Taweel The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy denied on ?Saturday media reports, that the Jericho ?Agro-Industrial Park is a common project between Israel , Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the ?Japanese government.?
The ministry issued a statement saying “Jericho Agro-Industrial Park is entirely a Palestinian project with no other parties, and the Jericho Agro-Industrial Park development ?company is a 100 percent Palestinian but the Japanese government has, thankfully, funded the infrastructure of the project.”?
The statement added that “there isn’t any sort of commitment with Israeli merchants or investors, or even ?shareholders and there isn’t any partnership of any kind.”?
The Palestinian statement came as a response to the Bisan Centre for Research and Development ?who had stated that Israel, Jordan and Japan were also involved in the project.
The Bisan Centre denied that the Industrial Zone is purely a Palestinian project saying the park would increase Palestinian dependency on Israel in addition to developing the normalisation of ties.?
The project is being co-ordinated by the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority (Piefza), based in Ramallah, backed by a grant of about $47.7 million from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica), which is paying for the solar power system, the installation of a sewerage and water system in the park, plus support from Japanese engineers.
The project is part of Japan\'s ambitious plan for a \"corridor for peace and prosperity\" in the Jordan Valley, launched in 2006 by the then Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. The idea was to encourage co-operation between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, with other Arab countries added in the longer term.