Wednesday, August 26, 2009 RAMALLAH: An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.Salam Fayyad's 65-page program proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors in a Palestinian state, which he says could be made ready by 2011.The program appeared to be a wish-list rather than a detailed blueprint. Peace talks with Israel, in which Palestinians seek a state on Israeli-occupied land, have been suspended since December."We need continued support by the international community," Fayyad told reporters after introducing the document."We are going to seek this additional funding," he said without disclosing figures. "Even after the state is established ... we will continue to need external financial support at least for development and public investment spending."The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on foreign assistance for most of its budget. In 2008, it received 1.8 billion in budget support.The Fayyad plan is short on detail, but setting out such objectives is a departure from Palestinian policy over the past 15 years, which focused exclusively on negotiations with Israel rather than building institutions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made a resumption of peace talks with Israel conditional on a freeze on Jewish settlements in territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 RAMALLAH: An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.Salam Fayyad's 65-page program proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors in a Palestinian state, which he says could be made ready by 2011.The program appeared to be a wish-list rather than a detailed blueprint. Peace talks with Israel, in which Palestinians seek a state on Israeli-occupied land, have been suspended since December."We need continued support by the international community," Fayyad told reporters after introducing the document."We are going to seek this additional funding," he said without disclosing figures. "Even after the state is established ... we will continue to need external financial support at least for development and public investment spending."The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on foreign assistance for most of its budget. In 2008, it received 1.8 billion in budget support.The Fayyad plan is short on detail, but setting out such objectives is a departure from Palestinian policy over the past 15 years, which focused exclusively on negotiations with Israel rather than building institutions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made a resumption of peace talks with Israel conditional on a freeze on Jewish settlements in territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war.
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