February 3, 2016
CEAPAD Senior Officials Meeting
Hakone
Outcome Document of the CEAPAD Senior Officials Meeting
1 The participants reaffirmed their strong support for the wish of Palestinians for their
future independent state alongside with Israel. They further expressed their strong determination to contribute to achieve peace through the negotiation for the realization of the "two-state solution" based on international law, relevant UN resolutions and other previous agreements through achieving sustainable socio-economic development of Palestine. In this regard, the participants welcomed the Palestinian state-building efforts and emphasized that the CEAPAD should continue to function as a forum/platform to share the knowledge, lessons and experience of East and Southeast Asian countries in economic development and regional integration to help guide these efforts.
2 The participants reviewed and shared the achievements since CEAPAD II in the numerous fields in support of the development of Palestine. These achievements include the following projects;
– Japan has provided training for about 700 Palestinians after CEAPAD 2 in Indonesia in 2014, including about 130 Palestinians with East Asian Partners (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Korea)
– a seminar and trainings in Korea and a study trip and a training in Thailand in cooperation with Japan for promoting tourism in Palestine. Thailand and Japan plan to co-host another two training courses on Tourism for Palestinians based on the specific needs in 2016-2017
– scholarships for Palestinians to study in Malaysian Public Universities under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP)
– Singapore has hosted three customized study visits for Palestinians since 2013, and will be hosting one more in March 2016
– Brunei Darussalam has awarded scholarships to Palestinian students
– In order to support the development of the Palestinian business sector, Indonesia in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) held the CEAPAD Business Forum and Trade Expo on the sidelines of CEAPAD II. No less than 40 Palestinian enterprises took part in this business forum.
– Since CEAPAD II, Indonesia has conducted 9 capacity building programs for 71 Palestinian participants in the field of good governance, agriculture, sports, diplomatic training, tourism and antiquities, archive management, and religion.
– In 2016, Indonesia will conduct 6 capacity building programs in cooperation with JICA and Indonesian NGOs
– Viet Nam has accomplished the training course for Palestinian police officers and provides yearly basis scholarship for Palestinian students. Viet Nam also expresses its intention to participate in the field of agriculture and education in the priority areas of assistance in support of human resources development for Palestine, as indicated in the ANNEX 2 of the Joint Statement of the CEAPAD II.
3 The participants welcomed that the CEAPAD Facilitation Mechanism (CEAFAM), which was launched in 2014 in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development of Palestine (now the Ministry of Finance and Planning), adopted its first project "Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Community Participatory Development of Sustainable Energy and Poverty Reduction". This project was successfully implemented by Indonesian NGOs (the People Centered Business and Economic Institute, IBEKA) in January, 2016. The participants highlighted the importance of CEAFAM as one of the mechanisms to facilitate cooperation among Palestinians, Arab countries and East and Southeast Asian countries and called on the participants and other donors to actively utilize the CEAFAM for the development of Palestine.
4 The participants reaffirmed the importance of establishing a viable and robust Palestinian economy especially through development of private sector and SMEs. In this regard, the participants shared the recent developments on Japan's initiative of "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity" and the importance of its flagship project, "Jericho Agro-Industrial Park (JAIP)", which contributes to the development of agro-industry and private sector of Palestine, as well as to regional cooperation. The participants expressed their hope for the involvement of private sectors of East and Southeast Asian countries to JAIP and confirmed the necessity to enhance collaboration with Asian partners.
5 The participants also exchanged views on concrete ideas in assisting the Palestinians on the ground including delivering much-needed development assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The participants pointed out that there are many challenges in delivering effective assistance and stressed the importance of cooperation and better coordination between the donors and concerned authorities to overcome such challenges.
6 The participants underlined the need to focus on developing the resilience of the Palestinian people, through increased involvement in youth employment and entrepreneurship, local economic development, participation of women, renewable energy and natural resource development. The participants encourage people to people partnership through understanding and mutual network building.
7 The participants confirmed their commitment to steadily supporting Palestinian development and producing concrete and tangible results by next CEAPAD Ministerial Meeting.
8 The participants also shared the importance to further clarify formality of the CEAPAD, including co-chairing mechanism and framework for monitoring and evaluation.
(END)
Country: Japan
Subject: Assistance, Economic issues
Publication Date: 03/02/2016