Translated by Sabrin Qadah 

The Dead Sea- President of the Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction- PECDAR D. Mohammed Shtayyeh, called on Arab Banks to establish an investment fund in Palestine that invests in productive projects, particularly the sectors that generate jobs, and to be managed on the basis of profit, not charity.

He said during his speech at the conference "the reality of the Palestinian banking sector: Opportunities and Challenges", organized by the Union of Arab Banks in the Dead Sea in Jordan: "Palestinians are courageous and Arabs are courageous, let us make our capital courageous, too."

He stressed the role of the private sector in the gradual disengagement from colonial dependency imposed by the occupation. He pointed out to the official approach to deepen economic relations with the Arab world, make the Palestinian economy a crane for policy, enable the national product to replace the Israeli product in our markets and work to enhance the steadfastness of our people in Jerusalem.

Shtayyeh put representatives of banks and Arab investors in the form of the economic situation in Palestine, analyzing distortions caused by the occupation in the structure of the Palestinian economy as a result of control over resources and borders.

He said that despite all the challenges, there are successful stories, including the success of the banking sector noting that the volume of deposits in the Palestinian banks is about $ 12 billion. He added that the volume of corporate funds that are traded in the Palestinian securities market reaches up to $ 3.5 billion, and there are about 115 thousand shareholders of companies listed on the stock exchange.

He explained that the Palestinian banks operate in exceptional circumstances as a result of the occupation, making them in need to exceptional treatment of the obstacles they face. Shtayyeh called on banks to grant facilities on productive loans and make it a priority in order to encourage investors to start their projects and develop them, thus creating jobs.

He continued: the private sector must be the main operator of labor, as it is not healthy that the PNA remains the biggest operator of the Palestinian workforce.

Shtayyeh said that the Palestinians now face a group of challenges, the First of which is the extremist government in Israel that does not want a solution and thus undermines the possibility of a Palestinian state through the grip on Area C, the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem, in addition to the blockade on Gaza. It furthermore endeavors to "whitening settlements" and making them legal.

The second challenge, according to Shtayeh, lies in the new US administration, which has not yet discerned its foreign policy despite all the negative messages it releases. While the third challenge lies in the weakness of the Arab region and the destructive conflicts. The fourth challenge however is to end the division and complete the reconciliation, which could be possible if there was an administration, according to him.