OIC to establish safety net for Palestine

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation OIC announced on Monday that it will hold a conference to create an Islamic financial safety net to support the Palestinian State in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on June 11th. OIC Secretary-General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a press statement that the Baku Conference comes within the framework of joint Islamic work and decision made during the 12th OIC session held in Cairo last February. Ihsanoglu noted that in light of the budget deficit faced by the Government of Palestine, Baku conference intends to create an Islamic financial safety net, as a contribution of the OIC, aimed at presenting direct financial aid. He added that such aid enables the Government of Palestine to promote and development its administrative tools and provide public services. This safety net is to become a complementary tool for international financing mechanisms to bridge the annual deficit of the Palestinian government, which currently reads USD 1.3 billion of the USD 3.8 billion dollars of the total budget. At a time where the European Union, Japan and the United States pledged USD 700 million a year, the Arab League safety net pledged USD 300 million. Raised hopes that the OIC members would step up and fulfill pledges in international aid, estimated at USD 300 million in the form of direct aid for the Palestinian government budget to enable them to provide government services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to reducing fiscal deficit.