RI, Japan to hold capacity building trainings for Palestinians

Antara News, Wed, July 13 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Japan are to hold capacity building training courses for Palestinians, a Foreign Ministry official said.

"We will jointly host training courses for Palestinians in such sectors as health, small- and medium-scale enterprises and agriculture. The program will run for a year and we will form a special committee to review the implementation of the trainings at the end of the program," Siti Mauludin, the foreign ministry`s director general for technical cooperation, said here on Wednesday.

Siti made the statement at a joint press conference with visiting officials from Japan and Palestine.

Meanwhile, the Japanese foreign ministry`s director for cooperation with the Middle East Yasunari Morino said the cooperation with Indonesia to hold capacity building training courses for Palestinians was intended to help Palestine build a state that will peacefully coexist with neighboring nations.

"The peace and stability of the world is in Japan`s best interest. Besides, we also have economic relations with countries in the Middle East. Therefore, the stability in the region is important to us," he said.

Morino said Japan strongly supported the two-state-solution for the conflict between Palestine and Israel. He expressed hope to see the negotiations between the two parties taking place soon.

Bashar Jama, chairman of the Palestine Development Planning Board, said the upcoming trainings hosted by Indonesia and Japan were beneficial for Palestinians, especially ahead of the Independence Proclamation of Palestine next September 2011.

Earlier, the Palestinian leadership had asserted that it will seek recognition of Palestinian statehood from the United Nations in September 2011.

The Palestinians want to declare their state on the lands that Israel occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem as the capital.

Editor: Priyambodo RH