“边境市场”投资兴起

Getting people to invest in the Palestinian territories is what some might term "a hard sell" given the political context in which the region works. But it's what those in the investment business call "a frontier market". And in recent years, faced with sluggish growth in developed markets, frontier markets have become a more serious investment proposition. Among them is the Palestine Security Exchange that lists 49 companies and the value of all their shares listed on the exchange is nearly three and a half billion dollars. Ahmad Aweidah is the PSE's chief executive. I put it to him that many people probably didn't even know there was a stock exchange in the Palestinian territories.

We have 49 listed companies across five sectors: banking and insurance, services, industry, investments.

Are companies actively traded; I mean, is there a lot of volume on a daily basis?

There has been, you know, it varies. We've had some very good years, we've had some excellent years and we've had some pretty bad years. There is a strong correlation between the politics and the economics in Palestine. But, the underlying story is that in spite of those difficulties, there are very very successful Palestinian companies. For example, I can give you Palestine Telecom which is the largest and most important equity that is listed on the exchange. This is a company that has over $1 billion of market capitalisation. It employs over 3,000 people, very successful.