More money to Palestinians on the way

The last days of 1997 witnessed an upswing in international pledges to the Palestinian Authority as the donor countries held a meeting recently in the French capital, Paris, during which they decided to offer $750 million in the form of loans and grants to the Palestinians in addition to $150 million in the form of guarantees to the private sector investment.

The countries expressed their intent to continue support for Palestinian projects after the end of the five-year plan in 1998.

The previous western pledges to finance the Palestinian five-year plan were supposed to be $3.6 billion but the Palestinians actually received $1.8 billion.

Palestinian requests from the international meeting included financing for 20 projects in the West Bank and the Gaza strip in addition to allocating $20 million to finance the housing plan. They also included $15 million to set up and support the judicial system, $1.4 billion in the form of technical aid for the banking system and $44 million for schools and hospitals.