Distribution and Planning of Industrial Areas in the Cities of Northern Palestinian Bank

This thesis is different from the previous studies by the database that it relied on. This database has been obtained directly from the field and from the official parties of the Palestinian National Authority. This database is related to the industrial sector in the towns of the Northern Palestinian Districts of the West Bank regarding their development and the available components of industry. their contribution in employment, production and commerce. Et is also related to the obstacles and problems facing the industrial establishments. This thesis has added a number of indicators about the reality of the industrial establishments in the towns of the .northern Palestinian districts of the West Bank. The present study is considered the first of its kind in Palestine because it has covered four towns: Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqilia. It is also a complementary of the previous research carried out by other researchers including the study of Iyad Ahmad ( 1999 ) about the determinants of choosing the industrial locus in the Tulkarm District, and the study of Mustafa Ghanem (1997) about industry in the Jenin District. The study contains comparisons of various independent variables including the locus, the type of industry, and the size of labor, factory ownership, district and their impact upon the locus. Variance relationships among these variables were analyzed by using the SPSS statistical analysis program. It is expected that the findings of this study will give a clear image about the industrial establishments in this respect to the Palestinian Ministry of Industry and Commerce. In this way, it will supply the various ministries with feedback about this reality in order to identify and reinforce the points of strength and to find out the points of weakness so that a corrective program could draw up to treat them. The study seeks to achieve the following aims: 1. To recognize the determinants of the geographical distribution of the industrial establishments in the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank. 2. To recognize the reality of manufacturing in the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank regarding: - Locus and the reason of choosing this locus, - Raw materials, - Marketing, - Available services, and - Workers in factories 3. To carry out comparisons in the reality of the industrial establishments in the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank according to the following variables: - Type of industry: (foods, smithery, carpentry, aluminum, clothes, construction industries), - Size of workers: (fewer than 10), (21-30), (more than 30), - Factory ownership, - Town (Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalgilia), and Others. The methodology of this study relied on three major axes: First Axis: general and theoretical framework of the study, reviewing, of concepts and theories related to industrial zones, their distribution and planning, reviewing some previous literature related to the subject of the study. Second Axis: Informational framework about the development of industry in Palestine, and the factors affecting the choice of the industrial locus in the main towns. Third Axis: Analytically and evaluative framework through analyzing the factors affecting the selection of the industrial locations, the problem facing them, and reaching findings and recommendations. The study reached in the following results: - The most important factor affecting the selection of the factory location in the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank has come in consistence with the findings of the study of Iyad Ahmad Abdul-Hadi (1999) and the study of Al-Hamadani (1991)which showed that the market variable is the most important factor in economic settlement. -The highest ownership of factories is individual ownership (73.08%), and the lowest ownership is public stock ¬(3,04%). -The study findings and analysis showed that the majority of factories in the sample included factories where fewer than 10 workers work (36.3%), followed by workers where (11-20) workers work (32.5%). This finding indicates the small sizes of the factories in the study population. - The factor that has the greatest effect upon the location selection of the industrial establishments is the market variable. - The study showed that the private ownership of the industrial establishments is very high (73.8%) in comparison with the public ownership (3.04%). - The greatest problems that face manufacturing at the factories of the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank are: border closure and lack of raw materials which might be attributed to Al-Aqsa Uprising and the closure policy adopted by the occupation authorities. - The most available services at factories are: water, followed by electricity and finally sewage. - There are differences in the sources of raw materials, the problems of obtaining raw materials, and marketing problems among the towns of various districts. Nablus suffers from the highest percentage of problems related to raw materials (78.0%), obtaining raw materials (88.2%), and marketing of' factory products (88.6%). This may be attributed to the fact that Nablus contains the largest industrial collection of the northern Palestinian towns of the West Bank (Abu-Shukur and Saleh Alawneh 1991) in addition to its distant location from the Green Line, the severe closure policy adopted by the occupation since the breakout of Al-Aqsa Uprising, the economic blockade, prohibition of importing raw materials, and exporting products. - The greatest problem in marketing factory products is in construction industries (92.1%).