At the request of the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and stemming from the importance of competition to promote sector development, ESCWA organized a capacity-building workshop to set the groundwork for developing a viable competition framework in Palestine. The workshop was designed to enhance the business environment through promoting the institution of competition and strengthening competition policy enforcement within the context of sustainable development. The workshop was hosted by the University of Petra in Amman with participation of 11 government officials from the Ministry of National Economy in order to frame their competition policy objectives, to strengthen their capacity to formulate, and to implement and enforce competition legislation and related policies. The training workshop sessions focused on a wide range of competition-related issues such as “elements of an effective competition framework – from both legal and institutional considerations”, and “benefits of competition in developing countries”.
 
The workshop has created a momentum of interest in competition and competition policy and has shown how a good competition could enhance private sector development as well as the overall economic decisions and performance in Palestine.  This was shown by the fact that all participants have indicated that they wish to attend more training workshops organized by ESCWA on issues related to competition and competition policies. According to their feedback, Palestinian officials have greatly benefited from overall activities especially the practical experiences in the Arab region shared by the Egyptian and Jordanian competition authority.