Assessment of legal and regulatory policies constraining business activity in Gaza and the West Bank

It also reviews donor activities that support legal and regulatory reforms, recommends policy interventions for which USAID has clear comparative advantages over other sources of assistance, and determines which Palestinian counterpart agencies would be most supportive of USAID efforts. Recommendations are presented in five areas. (1) USAID should support an effort to unify, modernize, and complete the commercial register. It should also help develop a modern system of land titling and registration for perfecting non-possessory security interests; however, major reforms in land titling and registration systems should be undertaken only after final negotiations with Israel take place. (2) USAID should develop a program to protect intellectual property rights through the design of a comprehensive legal framework, a working patent and trademark registration office, and a strategy for implementing and enforcing intellectual property rights mechanisms. (3) USAID should help create a TA unit within the Ministry of Finance to develop a Palestinian trust law in order to provide the basis for developing term credit and equity markets; it should also support programs to legally establish internationally accepted standards in accounting and auditing and to update the law on negotiable financial instruments and generate new instruments on an as-needed basis. (4) USAID should assist business advocacy groups by helping redraft the current law on business associations to reduce their dependence on the government. Additional assistance is needed to strengthen private sector trade and business associations and think tanks, which could be the focal point for government and private sector dialogue on business reforms. (5) USAID should support a program to streamline the commercial justice system by automating manual procedures, training judges and other court personnel, and modernizing caseload management and court administration procedures. This recommendation complements USAID"s Democracy and Governance project to support the Ministry of Justice in its efforts to improve the judicial system. Additional areas analyzed in this report include: Civil Code provisions as applicable to commercial transactions; insurance and contract savings; company regulations; antitrust law; labor issues; and questions concerning governance, public administration, and rule of law. (Author abstract, modified)