GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Ahmed al-Saidi, CEO of SellEnvo (Selling environment), a company specializing in software development and technology consulting, was surprised to receive a call in mid-May from the US Department of Commerce stating that the company was accepted in the global SelectUSA 2022 Investment Summit dedicated to promoting foreign direct investment in the United States.

The news came as a surprise to both Saidi and his team, as he knew full well how competitive the summit was. Hundreds of major international companies operating in more than 50 international markets compete to participate in the largest conferences organized by the US Department of Commerce in Washington. And for the first time, a company from the Gaza Strip will be taking part along with hundreds of companies from Europe, the United States, Gulf countries, the Arab region, Japan and China, among others.

SellEnvo, which was launched from the Gaza Strip to the countries of the world, is deemed as one of the first local companies to produce an e-commerce system. It provides many electronic services to customers in the United States and Europe, as it employs many programmers specialized in software and technological fields.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Saidi believes the US Department of Commerce had several reasons to offer this opportunity to his company specifically and not to other companies, including that SellEnvo offers all medium and small enterprises a good opportunity to expand their business and deliver their products online to markets that were not easily available had it not been for SellEnvo.