RAMALLAH – The Facility for New Market Development (FNMD) Monday celebrated results of its four-year project to support individual Palestinian enterprises and groups of companies that want to diversify their product range and enter new local and international markets.

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Consul General Sir Vincent Fean, UK Deptartment for International Development DFID head Helen Winteron and World Bank Country Director Mariam Sherman attended the ceremony along with 70-80 Palestinians firms.

Fean said that UK’s goal is to establish a Palestinian state with economic strength without depending on donors financial contributions.

He commented on the prisoners’ issue saying that UK sympathizes with the prisoners and their families and hopes to reach a fast solution.

Fayyad commended UK’s position to support Palestinian prisoners and expressed appreciation for its financial supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

DFID Private Sector Development team leader Nassim Nour stated that the project supported 603 companies in the West Bank and Gaza while helped create new jobs opportunities for 3,426 Palestinians.

The project helped increase FNMD’s clients sales by $118 million and their clients’ exports by 20$ million.

The project focused on improving the competitiveness of small companies in the West Bank and Gaza and was funded by the DFID in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and the World Bank.

FNMD aimed to encourage enterprises to expand into new markets locally, regionally and internationally, encourage enterprises to develop new and improve products for local markets, promote first time exporters, build the local market for business development services and gather data on local obstacles to growth.