Brussels, 22/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The donor coordination group for the Palestinian people, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), called on Wednesday 21 March for its members to provide $1 billion in aid to meet the funding needs of the Palestinian Authority in 2012. The AHLC says the Authority's financial crisis could last some time given the drop in recent and proposed aid income from donors.
The AHLC also called on the Israeli government to assist the sustainable growth of the Palestinian economy through new measures to improve the movement of people and goods, development, and trade and exports in the West bank and Gaza. It called for the swift conclusion and implementation of the improvements needed to make the clearance revenue mechanism “more efficient and transparent”. It called on Israel to ensure the monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority are predictable. Donors also welcomed the decision of the Palestinian Authority to persevere with structural reform, widening the tax base and maintaining budgetary discipline.
While welcoming the increase in building materials for infrastructure development and housing allowed into Gaza, the AHLC called for increased efforts, “including implementation of long-term solutions” to the water issues and finalization of plans for establishing production capacity for the medium-term water supply.
The AHLC said that sustainable economic growth and an end to the Palestinian Authority's fiscal crisis will require “greater realisation of the Palestinian private sector's potential” which can be achieved both by “relaxing Israeli restrictions on access to land, water, a range of raw materials, and export markets” and by “improvements by the Palestinian Authority in its business environment and ability to attract needed investment”.
The next AHLC meetings are scheduled for New York in September and Brussels in spring 2013. (CG/transl.rt)