HEADSTART (via John Resnick):

Palestinians sell off phone shares (Lara Sukhtian, 2/16/04, Associated Press)

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority has sold its stake in the local cellular phone company to help pay salaries of government employees, a top official said Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority turned over its 35 percent share in the Jawal phone service to Paltel, which runs the cellular phone monopoly, in exchange for $43 million, Palestinian Economics Minister Maher Masri said Sunday.

He said the money would go toward the salaries of 125,000 government workers. The sale is also in line with the government's privatization plans.

"At the end, we will not have any government-owned companies. We will only be partners in some companies," Masri said. "This is all part of the greater policy of reform."

Palestinian business people welcomed the deal. "The presence of the Palestinian Authority as a shareholder acts as an obstacle," said Abdel Malik Jaber, chairman of the executive board of Paltel. "Selling their shares would eliminate any accusations of government corruption.

It's not often a people gets to start off their new nation having already discarded the painful experiment with socialism.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 16, 2004 06:38 PM