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From Monsters and Critics.com Business News Bethlehem - Thousands of visitors flocked to Bethlehem Wednesday, ahead of a major international investment conference slated to open in the afternoon in the Biblical West Bank city. The three-day parley hopes to persuade as many foreign investors as possible to put their money in a Palestinian economy devastated by years of violence and instability. About 70 per cent of those attending the conference are from Arab countries and the Palestinian areas, and the remainder have arrived from Europe, Asia and the United States. Hotels in Bethlehem are full, and police units have been bussed in from Ramallah to help with crowd control. Building the Palestinian economy is one of the four central pillars of the revived, US- and European-sponsored peace process with Israel, the other three being negotiations on a framework agreement, implementation of the international 'road map' plan, and getting broader Arab support for the negotiations on a two-state solution led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The idea for the conference emerged from the December Paris Donors Conference, where the international community pledged an unprecedented 7.7 billion dollars to help revive the Palestinian economy. More than 100 investment projects, worth over one billion dollars, will be introduced, in the hope they will find partners and support. © Copyright 2007 by monstersandcritics.com. This notice cannot be removed without permission. |