India Donates $3 Million to complete Palestine-India Techno park, project to be inaugurated next year

PTI, Dec 8, 2020, 6:42 PM IST

India on Tuesday donated the final tranche of USD 3 million to complete the construction of Palestine-India Techno Park, which will serve as a launching pad for Palestinian IT entrepreneurs connecting them to the local, regional and global markets. The latest of the four contributions completes India’s commitment to donate USD 12 million towards the establishment of the Techno Park in Ramallah, near Bir Zeit University, made in 2016 as part of the bilateral assistance project.

The project is almost in its final stage and likely to be inaugurated in February or March of next year, officials said. Representative of India (ROI) in Palestine, Sunil Kumar, handed over the cheque of USD 3 million to Dr. Majdi Al-Khaldi, Diplomatic Adviser to the President at a ceremony organised at the project site.

The ceremony was also attended by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Abdul Latif Abu Hijleh, and members of the administrative board. Dr. Al-Khaldi expressed sincere gratitude towards the government and people of India for this generous contribution and for the “partnership in sharing expertise and capacity building efforts”.

“It is a gift from India that will serve various Palestinian sectors and will constitute Palestine’s launching pad to the IT markets in the region and the world,” he emphasised. Assuring India’s continued support and partnership with Palestine in its capacity building efforts in all fields, Kumar underlined the government and people of India’s “unwavering support to Palestine” and described the Palestine-India Techno Park “as another major icon of Indo-Palestinian partnership and friendship”.

The ROI stated that the Techno Park aims to create “suitable environment for start-ups, research and development and innovation initiatives, in addition to establishing a solid infrastructure that supports technology clusters that operate successfully on local, regional and global levels”. The Techno Park will serve as an IT hub in Palestine with complete facilities offering a one-stop solution to all related service requirements – providing state-of-the-art technology, host IT companies and foreign companies benefiting local businesses, universities and other institutions, with a target to generate business and job opportunities for young Palestinian entrepreneurs.

As part of the Indian government’s ongoing assistance programmes in Palestine to strengthen capacity-building efforts focused on institutions, services and training personnel, New Delhi is also providing 150 places for Palestinian professionals every year under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, in addition to the 100 educational scholarships at the level of graduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. in the Indian Universities for Palestinian students. Under an India-Palestine development partnership, the Indian government is funding eight ongoing development projects worth USD 59 millions, including building a 215-bed Super Specialty Hospital in Bethlehem, Information Technology Park, National Printing Press, Turathi-Women Empowerment Project, Diplomatic Training Institute and three schools in various governorates in Palestinian Territories.