RAMALLAH, June 30, 2011(WAFA)- The Government of Japan has decided to extend a Non-project grant aid of 1 billion Yen (approximately $12.4 million) to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a kind of its budget support to the PA. Notes to this effect were signed and exchanged today on June 30th, 2011 in Ramallah between Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the PA and Naofumi Hashimoto, Representative of Japan to the PA.
According to a press release by the representative office of Japan to the PA, the grant aid is extended as a part of international supports to alleviate the PA financial difficulties. With this grant, PA will procure commodities critically needed for daily economic activities in the Palestinian Territories.
Since 2007, in addition to today’s new grant, Japan has extended Non-project grant aids to the PA totaling 6.4 billion Yen (about $69 million on disbursement basis), the release said.
It said that under the Non-project grant aid program, the fund accumulated through selling commodities procured with this grant is deposited in a special account of the PA, then utilized for economic and social development in the Palestinian Territory, through consultations between Japanese and Palestinian governments.
The fund was utilized in 2010 for procuring medical equipment for hospitals and clinics in the West Bank, finalizing the construction works of a new President Office building in Ramallah, and enhancing property tax collection efforts in the West Bank, it said.
The release said that Japan’s assistance to the PA is extended in a form of budget support or in forms of specific development projects. Japan has been supporting financially and technically the economic development efforts exerted by key ministries, to help prepare the PA for statehood in line with the plan put forward by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in August 2009.
Japan has also provided assistance through UNRWA and other UN agencies including humanitarian assistance, as well as to local NGOs and local councils for their grassroots development projects. Japan’s assistance exceeds $1.19 billion in total since 1993, including around $100 million extended in Japan’s fiscal year 2010, the release said.
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