Bank of Palestine concluded its participation in the Arab Financial and Banking Week, which was held in Beirut, Lebanon, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Union of Arab Banks. Mr. Rushdi Ghalayini, the General Director of Bank of Palestine participated in the activities of the conference entitled “Partnership between the Public and Private Sectors to Achieve the Goals of Sustainable Development.”
The conference stressed the importance of supporting financial institutions in adopting the best programs and experiences that proved to be successful and had considerable impact on women and youth in the field of economic empowerment, creating a link between financial and non-financial services. The Bank was commended for its efforts and achievements on the level of empowering Palestinian women and engaging them in economic life through the launch of the Felestineya Program, which aims to spread awareness among Palestinian women about their role in economic production and growth. The bank manages to reach over 1,000 women annually, starting by raising their awareness about banking services, and the launch of the Felestineya Mini MBA program in partnership with Ernst and Young and other organizations. The Bank also provides credit facilitations that respond to the needs of Palestinian women based on a market analysis. The program encouraged many women, from businesswomen, employees and students, to access the business world, and pioneered the provision of banking services to micro, small and medium size enterprise, providing free of charge non-financial consultations to women and entrepreneurs. It also provided services to micro, small and medium size enterprise and assisted them in overcoming several obstacles and challenges.
During the conference, several recommendations were made, including a call to provide support services and programs for entrepreneurs for the establishment and growth of micro, small and medium size enterprise, in addition to the funding and development of economic infrastructure, such as agricultural projects, free zones and industrial zones and linking them with entrepreneurial mechanisms and programs, as well as expanding and developing existing financial services, such as capital investment funds and crowd funds, and developing financial mechanisms that are compatible with Islamic funding.
Many recommendations stressed the importance of encouraging creativity and innovation among youth through the development and upgrading of educational curriculums that link education with innovation, thus creating entrepreneurs, and encouraging investment, cooperation and partnerships between business entrepreneurs in order to achieve economic growth and development.
The conference, which was held over a period of two days, stressed the importance of the Arab private sector in financing all forms of sustainable development projects and initiatives, and clarifying the relationship between sustainable development and partnership between the private and public sectors, and focusing on the role of this partnership in achieving this sustainable development.