Ramallah – Ma’an – Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said on Tuesday that the government is working with full determination to prevent a decline in the level of services provided to citizens, and to fulfill its financial obligations to all parties.
He stressed that the government continues to fulfill its obligations towards employees in the Gaza Strip, despite the objection of the Israeli side and its punitive measures in deducting the value of what we pay to our people in Gaza from the clearance value, which doubles the cost to the government.
He also stressed in his speech at the beginning of government session No. 12 that the government will not allow the success of the extremist leadership in the occupying state to weaken its ability to provide basic services to citizens and fulfill its financial obligations towards employees, service suppliers, contractors and others, through the financial war waged by the occupation.
He said that the government is working on several paths in order to provide the necess
ary financial resources, by making continuous efforts with a group of sisterly Arab countries and a group of European countries, as well as the European Union and international financial institutions, to mobilize financial support for the public treasury at this critical stage, adding, ‘We have found a promising response.’ From many of these parties and an understanding of the sensitive situation and its economic, social and security repercussions.’
He added: “We also continue to work with a number of friendly parties in order to secure the release of our funds seized by the Israeli side in practices that violate international law and the signed agreements.”
He stressed, “Although we are confident that the financial situation will improve in the coming months, we are also still working to ensure that at least part of this money arrives within the next two weeks so that we can fulfill our obligations.”
The Prime Minister said: ‘This year, the situation was different in light of the inability of 39,000 of ou
r students in the Gaza Strip to sit for the high school exams, and this is very painful for us.’
He added: “However, we are happy and appreciative of our colleagues in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and all those who supported them for the exceptional effort they made to ensure that around 1,536 male and female students took the exam in 29 countries outside Palestine, the most important of which is the Arab Republic of Egypt. We thank the Arab Republic of Egypt and all those who contributed to enabling around 1,100 of our students to take the high school exam in Egypt.”
He pointed to the efforts undertaken by the Ministries of Social Development and Labor to provide assistance to social segments that were negatively affected by the war on Gaza and the aggression on the West Bank, as the Ministry of Social Development is working to expand the base of beneficiaries of its support from 130,000 families to 300,000 families in the Gaza Strip, and 15,000. A family in the West Bank, in addition to
the Ministry’s effort to support and provide social protection for people with disabilities, wounded children, the elderly, women, and the marginalized who are now in shelter centers, and to provide sponsorships for orphans, whose number has reached 22 thousand orphans due to the war in the Gaza Strip.
He touched on the efforts made by the Ministry of Labor to provide financial support and health insurance, and to provide job opportunities for a number of workers who lost their jobs as a result of the aggression, through the implementation of several projects, including wage support in various sectors such as agriculture, construction and services through the Palestinian Employment Fund, and other projects such as the “Cash for Work” project for working women, in addition to supporting agricultural projects and livestock through the Cooperative Labor Authority. It also provides zero-interest loans to establish small projects in cooperation with the Monetary Authority, as well as enhancing vocational training
programs in cooperation with training centers, in addition to the Ministry’s efforts in cooperation with the private sector and the General Union of Palestinian and Food Industries to provide job opportunities.
He pointed out that the government’s efforts are not limited to dealing with today’s challenges, as it plans to launch a group of initiatives that will be able to achieve the desired financial and economic stability, and the most important of these initiatives are:
-The Energy Security Initiative, specifically relying on alternative energy sources, reducing dependence on importing it from abroad, and reducing the cost of energy services.
-Health services localization initiative to improve the quality of health services and reduce the cost of purchasing the service.
– The digital transformation initiative and the need to use technology more in providing our government services.
– An initiative to develop the social protection, social insurance and social security system, specifically social protect
ion for the poor, needy and unemployed.
– The Economic Empowerment Initiative and its importance in stimulating the economy and creating job opportunities in the next stage.
He added that all relevant ministries are working hard to implement government initiatives and develop other initiatives, in order to raise the ceiling of government services in a way that contributes to providing better services to our people.
Source: Maan News Agency