No fewer than 1,982 small and medium-sized business operate in Judea and Samaria, a 100% increase over the past decade. The average rate of entrepreneurship in Judea and Samaria was 20% higher than that of Tel Aviv, relative to population size, in 2018.
The data, from the Central Bureau of Statics and the MATI Jerusalem Business Development Center in Judea and Samaria, was presented at an entrepreneurial conference in Samaria, the first such conference of its kind.
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In a sign of the region's growing tourism industry, the most prominent field of business in Judea and Samaria is the service industry, in particular food and hospitality services, followed by industry and health services and skincare.
Conference attendees welcomed the Tourism Ministry's recent decision to incentivize entrepreneurs to build hotels in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, in the form of grants to entrepreneurs at a 20% rate of the total investment.
According to Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, "Entrepreneurship is in Samaria's DNA. The reason for this is, on the one hand, the distance from the cities, and the other hand, an active population that came here to settle and to build and therefore is no stranger to entrepreneurship."
