President Mahmoud Abbas received the annual report of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction 'PECDAR’, on Monday afternoon, during a meeting with President Abbas, and a delegation of the Council, headed by the Council’s President Mohammed Shtayyeh, in the Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah.

Palestine Economy Portal | President Abbas praised the efforts of PECDAR as a leading organization in serving the Palestinian people, and the transparency of PECDAR since its inception and up until today.

Shtayyeh reviewed the highlights of the report in front of the President, clarifying that it includes PECDAR’s achievements during the past year, and its plans to improve its performance in the Palestinian Territories this year. The report includes also the reports of the National Institute for Administration, National Institute for Information Technology, and Women’s Fund, all of which have been established by PECDAR.

He announced that PECDAR has achieved dozens of projects, where they contracted over 90 contractor and supplier, explaining that the total of the grants being implemented currently by PECDAR is around 72 million US Dollars, 65 million in the West Bank, and 7 million in Gaza; 20 million of these have been disbursed during 2014.

Shtayyeh said that among the projects implemented last year were: delivery of Istiqlal Park ready for municipalities, finishing all interior work in the Presidential Guest Palace; currently implementing the exterior work, and building extra facilities for Al-Quds Open University in Nablus; Polytechnic University in Hebron, and Istiqlal University in Jericho, in addition to several other projects in Gaza and Jerusalem.

The report also indicated that Women’s Fund, established by PECDAR two years ago, has provided loans for around 1,000 women, with a value exceeding One million and 700 thousand Dollars through the Fund’s branches all around the West Bank.

PECDAR confirmed in its annual report the principles of transparency and integrity, as it pointed out that all of its accounts are subject to international audit firms approved by the donors and the World Bank. This report was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers firm, which is an international, well-known firm in the field of external auditing.

(Palestine Economy Portal)