Essential Skills and Training Provisions for Building Project Stakeholders in Palestine.

The primary aim of this paper is to identify the skills that both construction clients and contractors identify as critical to improving the building sector’s overall productivity in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Through a comprehensive questionnaire targeting key project stakeholders (namely, clients and contractors), this paper also evaluates the factors affecting skills upgrade and the continuity of training approaches currently used in this sector. Mentoring appears to be the preferred training approach for clients and contractors alike. According to respondents, decision-making, problem solving and goal setting skills are highly critical. Furthermore, conventional face-to-face meetings were identified as the most suitable communication channel to obtain and exchange project information. Staff self-interest and willingness to upgrade their skills were ranked as the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of the professional training process. Based on the study findings, the paper concludes with a set of practical recommendations

Contractors Bidding Behaviors in Palestinian Constructtion Industry

The tendering procedures in the United Nation Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) are based on a clear, transparence regulations and credible systems that focused directly to achieve the best value of money. The aim of this paper is to analyze the bidding process and the bidders' participation trends in the construction, maintenance and repair tenders in UNRWA during the period (2002-2007). 567contracts were awarded during that period for construction, maintenance and repair projects. The results show that the bidders have strong tendency to bid in the construction building tenders, while weak participation was observed in the repair tenders. The results show also that, the level of participation is improved with the existence of fixed bid bond rather than percentage bid bond. The clients are advised to adopt a cooperative strategy with the bidders to empower their tendency to participations in the repair works