Geography of Industry in Tulkarm Governorate

Industry is considered as the armature of the economical sectors; because of its importance to the progress and development of societies, it is noticeable that the industrial countries have moved a qualitative jump in all aspects of life, different from a lot of non industrial countries. As an example of its role in the development of peoples and nations is what has happened recently to a group of the Asian Tigers (such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia ) in Southeast Asia, where this development has led to the transfer of these communities from disability, poverty and underdevelopment to a state of progress and prosperity on the economic, social, political, and scientific levels. Palestine as a developing country is in dire need to make efforts for the advancement of the industry sector; because of its direct effect to achieving food security, improving economical, and social conditions, and having the capacity cope with laborers. This helps to reduce the high unemployment rate, and contributes to increase both national income and individual income at the same time, therefore this study focuses on the geographic industry in Tulkarm district to clarify the structure of the sector, its components, and the difficulties it faced, to develop appropriate solutions to reduce them or get rid of them. The study consists of six chapters, where the first chapter, includes the introduction of the study, the main problems, the importance, and objectives. The second chapter deals with natural ingredients and human impact on industrial activity in province of Tulkarm. The third chapter deals with the factors affecting the choice of industrial location in province of Tulkarm, and historical periods experienced by the industry there. The fourth chapter the industrial composition and structure in Tulkarm has been studied. The fifth chapter proposed the industrial planning, and the proposed industrial zones are implied. Lastly, Chapter six draw conclusions, and recommendations of the study. To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher restricts all of industrial facilities operating in province of Tulkarm, in addition to the selection of a random sample of size of 10% represented by 78 facilities. The researcher used a questionnaire designed to achieve the objectives of the study, and then checked and processed the collected data using (SPSS) program, the (GIS) technology is used to generate the maps. The following are the results and outcomes of the study: 1. Workers in the industrial sector in the province of Tulkarm form around 25.7% of all the workers in various economic sectors. 2. Most of industrial facilities in the West Bank are similar, therefore, the study showed a rate of 92% of industries in the province have similar industries in the West Bank . 3. Occupied manufacturing industries accounted for 92.3% of total other industrial facilities in the province. 4. The dominant feature on the size of industrial facilities in the province are small-scale installations 76.4% and the medium sized are 19%, while the large is of 4.6%. 5. Most of the ownership of industrial establishments in Tulkarm are of individual property, with a ratio of 69.2% and 28.2% special contribution while 2.6% are of public shareholding. Based on the study cited in the previous chapters, the researcher has highlighted and proposed the following recommendations: 1. Work on the pre-planning of industrial zones to reduce the uncontrolled proliferation. 2. To encourage industries based on local raw materials. 3. There's a need to reconsider the economic agreements between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side, especially the Paris economical agreement, and activating the economic agreements with Arab countries and friendly countries. 4. Work on the adoption of the Palestinian National Authority of laws to support industry and 'be included' in the constitution.