S’pore committed to support the capacity-building efforts of the Palestinian people

SINGAPORE — Senior Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, who is currently on a working visit to the Palestinian Territories, met Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas and other PNA leaders on Monday (Nov 7).

During the meetings, Dr Maliki reiterated Singapore’s commitment to support the capacity-building efforts of the Palestinian people, said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) statement.

MFA added that as a follow-up to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to Ramallah in April 2016, Singapore would appoint Mr Hawazi Daipi as the Republic’s non-resident Representative to the PNA to coordinate Singapore’s Enhanced Technical Assistance Package (ETAP) for the Palestinians.

“The PNA leaders welcomed the appointment,” the statement said.

During his visit to Ramallah, Mr Lee had announced a doubling of Singapore’s technical assistance package to the PNA from S$5 million to S$10 million.

The package covers study visits to Singapore, priority places in training courses on education, anti-corruption and economic development, and postgraduate scholarships.

Since 2013, Singapore has hosted six study visits under ETAP, including the most recent one last month by a delegation led by the PNA Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Sabri Saidam. TODAY understands that there has been an increase in study visit requests to Singapore as well as in technical training applications by Palestinian officials since Mr Lee’s visit in April.

Mr Hawazi Daipi, who was Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower and Education before leaving politics last year, will be resident in Singapore and make occasional visits to the Palestinian Territories.

The appointment is not a diplomatic one as Singapore does not recognise the state of Palestine. Other countries such as New Zealand and Japan have appointed similar representatives to PNA.

Dr Maliki is currently on a five-day visit to the Middle East. On Monday, he also met PNA Prime Minister Dr Rami Hamdallah, Foreign Affairs Ministers Dr Riyad Al-Maliki, Dr Saidam, and Minister of National Economy Abeer Odeh.

In the meetings, Dr Maliki also reiterated Singapore’s consistent position and longstanding support for the two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security, said MFA.

“He expressed the hope that both sides would resume negotiations and make progress towards a just and durable solution.”

Dr Maliki will visit the Palestine Red Crescent Society Headquarters and meet the Mayor of Al Bireh Municipality Fawazi Abed Salim to convey a donation of books provided by the National Library Board to the Al Bireh Public Library on Tuesday, after which he will depart the Palestinian Territories for Jordan.