Poverty and unemployment have risen drastically since Intifada began in 2000.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Nov. 23--Nearly half of Palestinians live in poverty on less than $2 a day and their economy remains prostrated by conflict with Israel despite a decrease in fighting, the World Bank said in a report, Reuters reported.
Poverty and unemployment have risen drastically since the current wave of bloodshed began in 2000 and the crisis can be resolved only by freeing Palestinians to trade in foreign markets, the international development bank said.
It said Israeli military clampdowns in the West Bank and Gaza had throttled the Palestinian economy. Israel blames the Palestinians' economic freefall on their uprising and rules out lifting security closures without an end to militant attacks.
The World Bank's first appraisal of Palestinian economic life since May 2003 was issued a month before the next meeting of international donors who prop up the Palestinian economy.
It said 47 percent of the 3.6 million Palestinians in the territories were now living below the poverty line, compared with 20 percent in 1999.
Up to 600,000 Palestinians could not afford basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter, the 93-page report said.
Unemployment had risen to 28.6 percent by the second quarter of 2004, compared with 10 percent before the uprising. Among young people, who comprise the great majority of suicide bombers and other militants, the jobless rate was close to 40 percent.
The Palestinians' per capita gross domestic product had plunged 37 percent since 1999, the bank said.
The economy mounted a brief recovery in 2003 at a time when violence subsided during a short-lived ceasefire and a reduction in Israeli-imposed curfews. But it has stagnated further since even with the overall level of violence down, the report said.
International donations that averaged $950 million annually from 2001-03 have warded off economic disaster in the territories but "donor fatigue" looms as the conflict drags on even at the current lower level of violence, the bank warned.
"The easing of internal closures alone will not be enough to create jobs and fight poverty here. Ending the Palestinian economic crisis will also depend on opening external borders so the private sector can trade in international markets," it said.

WASHINGTON,
Nov. 23--Spending in Eastern Europe and Asia is expected to lead a recovery in the global technology market over the next three years, according to an industry report released on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
After years of sluggish growth, technology spending is expected to climb steadily through 2007 as China, Poland and other countries in the developing world invest heavily in hardware, software, networking equipment and services, according to a study commissioned by World Information Technology and Services Alliance, an industry trade group.
Total spending should hit $3.2 trillion in 2007, up from $2.1 trillion in 2001, the report said.
Spending in Asia and the Pacific Rim is expected to grow quickest at 9.3 percent annually, while spending will increase in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at a rate of 8.9 percent per year.
Technology markets in North and South America will grow at a 6.7 percent annual clip, according to the report.
In the face of higher growth elsewhere, the Western Hemisphere is expected to account for 44 percent of the market, down from 46 percent in 2003, the report said.
As developing countries jump in the tech game their influence is expected to grow accordingly, the report said.
"Although the dominance of the developed world (in technology) is not likely to change soon, the developing world can no longer be ignored or considered irrelevant," the report said.
The report was produced using data provided by consulting firm Global Insight Inc. The US-based World Information Technology and Services Alliance is a group of 65 technology trade groups from around the world.

A pile of sugar cubes in front of the EU Council building are labeled with 'improve rather than destroy', during a demonstration in Brussels on Monday. (AP Photo)

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 23--Ten European countries voiced fears late Monday over a plan to overhaul sugar production in the European Union, saying that proposed reforms "depart from the fundamental principles" of the EU's common agricultural policy, AFP reported.
In a letter delivered to new Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel on the sidelines of a meeting of EU farm ministers, the signatories asked "that the reform should aim at maintaining the existing distribution of sugar beet and sugar production on the entire EU territory".
The letter was signed by Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
Fischer Boel responded cautiously, saying that she was not informed of the details of the letter. She added however, "The possibility, I think, of keeping up the present production in all the member states seems to me to be difficult."
She would decide on her reform package early next year, once an EU appeal against a World Trade Organization panel ruling branding EU sugar subsidies as illegal had been considered.
Australia, Brazil and Thailand have lodged a complaint against the EU's regime for sugar production and exports.
Fischer Boel has pledged to reach an agreement in time for the next WTO ministerial meeting which is to wind up the Doha round of trade liberalization talks launched in Qatar in 2001.
"It is crucial to have at least a political agreement on the reform preferably before we meet in Hong Kong for the WTO negotiations in December next year," she said.
The 10 opponents of the reform plans introduced by her predecessor Franz Fischler said that they were "well aware of the necessity to introduce significant modifications" to the current sugar regime. But they added, "We believe that the reform should aim at maintaining the existing distribution of sugar beet and sugar production on the entire EU territory; the Commission's proposals which run contrary to this concept depart from the fundamental principles that have up to now underpinned the common agricultural policy...

BEIJING, Nov. 23--A senior Chinese central bank official has warned the United States not to blame other countries for its own economic difficulties, AFP quoted a report as saying.
Li Ruogu, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, also said in an interview with the Financial Times that foreign pressure would not force China to move faster on freeing up its exchange rate system.
"China's custom is that we never blame others for our own problem," Li was quoted as saying.
"For the past 26 years, we never put pressure or problems on to the world. The US has the reverse attitude, whenever they have a problem, they blame others."
Li warned that external pressure on China to abandon its decade-old peg to the US dollar would only be counter-productive.
"Under heavy speculation we cannot move (towards greater flexibility) and under heavy external pressure we cannot," he said according to the report.
"So the best environment for us to gradually move towards a more flexible exchange rate is when people don't talk about it."
China has been under pressure for months to allow its currency, the yuan, to rise against the US dollar.
The pressure has come especially from the United States, where it is widely held that the "cheap" yuan has cost American jobs on a massive scale.
Chinese officials have consistently resisted the pressure, with central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan saying at an international finance conference in Berlin over the weekend that it was too early to talk about a loosening of the peg.

MOSCOW, Nov. 23--Menatep, the chief shareholder in Russian oil giant Yukos, said it has proposed to President Vladimir Putin negotiations over the potential auction of Yukos' main production unit to pay back taxes, AFP reported.
The group, which holds more than 60 percent of Yukos's shares, said in a statement that the Kremlin had so far refused to enter talks on a potential sale of Yuganskneftegas, the auction of which has been set for December 19.
"Group Menatep, the main shareholder of Yukos, has proposed to the Russian government an offer to hold negotiations over the planned sale of Yuganskneftegas," Tim Osborne, the group's acting director, said in a statement.
"Yuganskneftegas might be sold for a sum far lower than its actual price," he said. "We have sent a letter, basically addressed to Putin, offering to push forward negotiations over this matter. We have asked them about this, but have not received any reply so far."
The government has seized Yugansk--which produces one million barrels of oil daily, or as much as the US state of Texas--and is selling it in order to cover tax arrears against Yukos, which jumped to $24 billion (18.46 billion euros) following fresh charges for 2003 that were announced on Friday.
The state has set an 8.65-billion-dollar starting price for 76.8 percent of Yugansk's shares, just over half that set by independent Western consultants.
Although most analysts here believe Yugansk will probably be swallowed up by a state-linked company--possibly one like natural gas behemoth Gazprom--the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell has refused to rule out participation in the bidding.
The company's chief of Russia, John Barry, told the Vremya Novostei daily that the company was looking into an array of future investments, including Yugansk and the Sakhalin oil projects off the coast of Japan.
Shell is the sole purchaser in North America of liquefied natural gas from Gazprom, giving the Dutch company a strong position on the Russian market.

Agriculture, a major economic activity employs half of Pakistan.s labor force and generates nearly fourth of the gross national product, dawn.com reported.
So far, the agricultural strategy has successfully met the food requirements of a rapidly growing Pakistani population and has played a pivotal role in earning foreign exchange through export of rice and cotton.
Crops, the most important agricultural sub-sector constitutes around 60 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP).
It is an irony that Pakistan has yet to take advantage of its coastal zones, comprising of 550 kilometers coastline of Balochistan and 330 kilometers shore line of the Southern Province of Sindh.
Some of its areas are best suited for oilpalm plantation with suitable temperatures between 24¡C to 35¡C. In case of less rainfall, its substitution can be humidity and availability of canal water. Eleven districts of Andhra Pradesh in India can do it, so why not we.
The import bill of edible oils is costing the national exchequer about Rs50 billion of hard earned foreign exchange. Pakistan has all the necessary ingredients to go for massive oilpalm plantation and succeed only if we get out of the edible oil trap.
There are eight major oils in the world today out of 16. These are coconut, sunflower, palm, soyabeanl, cotton, rapeseed, groundnut and palm kernel oil. The world wide average productivity of various oil crops are soyabean 351kg hectare per year, cottonseed 188; groundnut 384; sunflower seed 504; rapeseed 556; sesame seed 178; palm oil 3,200; palm kernel oil 454; and copra 356 kg/ha/year. It may be mentioned here that one hectare equals to 2.47 acres, and that each hectare under pilpalm yields 10 times more oil than most of the other oil crops.
The import of palm oil in 2001-02 was 1,189,329m tons worth Rs23,905.128 million, excluding approximately 70 percent taxes and freight charges and totalling 99.84 percent import. Coconut oil was 0.16 percent, which was 1,881.240 million tons worth Rs53.097 million excluding approximately 70 percent taxes and freight charges.
The steady growth in population has been and will remain the main factor in growth of edible oil industry in Pakistan.
It is essential, prudent and imperative that Pakistan should go for oilpalm plantation as it spends about Rs50 billion on the import of 1.400 million tons of edible oil annually and its share of palm oil is about 1.200 million tons per annum.
The edible oil requirement is about two million tons per annum, while the local production is only 0.634 million tons per annum, which is only 30 percent. 70 percent of edible oil is imported every year. It is expected that the edible oil requirement will increase by 6 to 8 per cent per annum.
After good management, the country will be able to save Rs35 billion per annum after 10 years' of oilpalm plantation in coastal areas of Pakistan i.e., after the crops mature. However, during the 7-8 years' time required for maturity, income can be generated through inter cropping of banana, papaya, fodder and vegetables between two rows of plants.
The cost and income of production of oil palm and inter cropping worked out for 25 acres is Rs262,500 and Rs260,000, respectively, while income from oilpalm and inter cropping shall be Rs1,487,500 and 595,000, respectively. Rice cannot be inter cropped.
The Coastal Development Authority has launched a scheme for oilpalm plantation on 2,000 acres in coastal areas of Thatta and Badin Districts, which has been reflected in the ADP 2004-05. Its economic analysis shows that by 2011-12, the net benefit shall start rising from Rs2.9 million to Rs70.00 million each. Experience of the CA and the Pakistan Oilpalm Development Board in the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh has testimony to the fact that oilpalm plantation can be done.
As for socio-economic benefits, Pakistan is in a win-win situation. The likely socio-economic benefits would be self-sufficiency in edible oils or at least moving in that direction, savings of foreign exchange, encouragement of industrialization, improvement of per acre income of growers, utilization of rural manpower round-the-year, improvement of natural environment, substitution of sugarcane, each hectare under oilpalm yields 10 times more oil than most other oil crops, and income far exceeds expenditure when both oilpalm is planted, and intercropping is done simultaneously.
In 30 to 40 years, Pakistan can become an exporter to the Persian Gulf and the Middle Eastern countries, if properly managed. This sector shall be the most effective, efficient income generating and poverty reduction tool. Besides, Oil palm is known to be consumer and environment friendly.