Press Release

OFID approves US$15 million in fresh funds to Palestine

55/2006 June 13, 2006, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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The Ministerial Council of the OPEC Fund for International Development, meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in its 27th Annual Session, today approved an additional US$15 million to buttress the Fund’s Special Grant Account for Palestine. The new money will be additional to the cumulative US$40 million already in the account, which is financing projects and programs to ease hardship in occupied Palestine.

Honorable Ministers expressed sympathy and solidarity with the people of Palestine and said the hope is that the present crisis would abate.

At a recent meeting in Vienna, Austria, between Palestinian Authority President HE Mr. Mahmoud Abbas (Abumazen) and the Director General of OFID, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Mr. Abbass expressed gratitude, on behalf of his people, to the OPEC Fund for the Fund’s “active contributions to mitigate the crisis” facing his people.

OFID’s Special Grant Account for Palestine is supporting educational, health and infrastructure schemes and rehabilitation. The proceeds are also backing social projects via support to local, non-governmental organizations. The grant account is one of three currently operated by OFID to also battle food crises and contribute to the global campaign against HIV/AIDS.