Translated by Sabrin Qadah 

Under the patronage of Minister of Local Government minister and the Chairman of the fund’s Board D. Hussein Araj, and in the presence of the representative of Switzerland in Palestine Paul Garnier, Municipal Development and Lending Fund signed today Thursday with the Swiss Agency for International Development a 2.88 million euros financing agreement especially for the marginalized areas over the next four years. The agreement comes based on what has been achieved during the first phase of supporting marginalized areas, which targeted several areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a total value of $ 2.4 million, in the context of the continuous support of the Swiss government regarding the development of the local government sector.

Al-Araj praised the support that the Swiss government provides to the Palestinian people by providing financial grants that contribute to the implementation of several development projects, stressing the importance of this vital project that focuses on the development of marginalized areas.

He stressed that this agreement came as a result of the efforts made by the fund and the ministry and a number of donors to reach the standards and parameters to select the areas and the projects, as a specific mechanism was adopted for this matter by the Steering Committee headed by the Ministry of Local Government and membership of the fund and a number of donors.

In his turn, the General Director of the Fund D. Tawfiq al-Badiri stressed on the importance of the program for the Fund, adding that the project will be implemented through the Fund.