RAMALLAH, March 4, 2010 (WAFA)-  The Government of Japan has decided to extend a community empowerment grant aid (the Project for Support for the Public Activities of the Communities in Jordan Valley) totaling 1.176 billion JPY (¥1,176,000,000) to the Palestinian territory.

 Notes to this effect were exchanged on Tuesday in Ramallah in the West Bank of Jordan River, between Mr. Naofumi Hashimoto, Representative of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, and H.E. Dr. Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister/Minister of Finance, Palestinian Authority.

 In the Palestinian territory, which is still being occupied by Israel, there has been growing necessities of expanding the public welfare in each district, due to various limitations peculiar to the occupation, including restrictions on land use and movement of people. Especially in the Jordan Valley, where the social-economic development has been most delayed by the fact that many poor farm communities are scattered over the area, there is an urgent need to improve their living environments for the local inhabitants through providing them with all kind of social facilities to support their living.

From the viewpoint mentioned above, this grant aid aims to comprehensively equip the Jordan Valley area with local facilities of every sort, such as medical clinics, schools, multi-purpose community centers, community roads and power lines, which form living infrastructures of its residents. Through implementing this aid, it is expected that the living conditions of the local people will be much improved at each community level, which will lead to the promotion of their economic independence.