Intel invests in the future of Gaza

The chipmaker has joined forces with an aid agency, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), to build a facility at the Islamic University of Gaza. The pair says the centre will help expand "educational and employment opportunities and help stimulate the IT market in Gaza".

According to ANERA's president, Dr. Peter Gubser, "The best way to sustain peace in the region is to give people a sense of hope in the future, which means offering dignity, freedom, and an opportunity to improve one's life." The centre, he says "is fulfilling those needs with professional IT jobs in the difficult Gaza environment. It signals progress and fosters hope."

And the situation in Gaza is pretty hopeless. The World Bank estimates that 60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. Nearly half the 1.4 million population are refugees, living in squalid camps where they have been confined for nearly fifty years.

Israeli control of the area means there are no ports or airports, so effectively no trade with the outside world other than through the occupying power.

Gubser applauds Intel as the "first major U.S. corporation to take a positive step toward Gaza's educational and economic development." He reckons the opportunities created by the Intel IT Center of Excellence will benefit the local Palestinian economy as well as the broader Middle East IT industry by producing "thousands of new IT professionals and stimulating job creation".

Intel is the biggest private employer in neighbouring Israel.

The relationship between Intel, ANERA, and the Islamic University of Gaza is, Gubser says, "a clear demonstration that the international community is prepared to make a significant investment in the future of Palestinian society."

Intel won't say how much it is to invest in the project, construction of which is due to start in February 2006. µ

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