Turkey to help the Palestinian people.

Speaking during a meeting with Rifat Hicarciklioğlu, the chairman of the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and Ahmed Hashim Zugyar, the head of the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Gül said that Turkey sought to strengthen its ties with Palestine.
“We have launched a new initiative under an action plan prepared as a result of efforts to ease difficult living conditions of Palestinian people,” Gül said.
“Through this initiative, which we have launched as a result of long-standing work, Turkey’s humanitarian, medical, social, economic, technical and cultural aid to Palestine will be diversified. We will expend efforts to make this aid systematic, productive and influential. We have also invited non-governmental organisations to mobilise themselves for this purpose.”
Turkey would also seek to encourage Turkish and Palestinian businessmen, industrialists and farmers to work more closely in co-operation, the Foreign Minister said.
“We have listened to the views and proposals of relevant public institutions, foreign representations and private sector as we prepared the action plan,” he said. “The plan includes many elements from health relief to the encouragement of exports, from providing the Palestinian people with vocational and technical training to the formation of a business council, exchange of commercial information, co-operation among small and medium scale enterprises and preparation of a legal structure for investments.”
To assist in this process, the Turkish government was to make a contribution of $100,000 to the Palestinian Fund, established to promote employment and social protection under the technical co-operation working programs of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“Turkish Eximbank has also allocated a loan of $50 million for the projects of the Palestinian national administration,” Gül said. “I hope that Palestine would use this loan in the most beneficial way.”
The government was also preparing some new political ideas, proposals and missions in an effort to make a contribution to implementation of the peace road map, he said.
“Turkey has been expending all kinds of efforts to establish peace in the region by benefiting from its special friendly relations both with Israel and Palestine and from its historical role in the Middle East,” Gül said. “We hope that our efforts will contribute to implementation of the road map, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and efforts of settlement of peace and prosperity in the Middle East.”