MFA Press Release: Pledge Statement delivered by SMS Balaji at the New Asia Africa Strategic Partnership (NAASP) Capacity Building Conference on Palestine in Jarkarta, 14-15 July 2008

Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Balaji Sadasivan delivered this pledge statement at the New Asia Africa Strategic Partnership (NAASP) Capacity Building Conference on Palestine in Jarkarta on 14 July 2008.

PLEDGE STATEMENT BY SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR
FOREIGN AFFAIRS DR BALAJI SADASIVAN AT THE
NEW ASIA AFRICA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
CAPACITY BUILDING CONFERENCE ON PALESTINE
IN JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 14 JULY 2008

Mr Chairman,

1 Singapore is honoured to participate in this Conference. This Conference is both a timely and worthwhile endeavour. It is timely because it builds on the momentum generated by the Annapolis process and the Paris Donors Conference. More importantly, it represents a concrete outcome of the New Asia and Africa Strategic Partnership Senior Officials' Meeting that was held in Durban, South Africa in 2006. This Conference is worthwhile because it is targeted at mobilising technical assistance resources to assist the Palestinian people and the Palestinian National Authority in capacity building. Hence, I join my other colleagues in expressing our sincere appreciation to Conference co-chairs Indonesia and South Africa for their leadership and efforts as we pursue the common goal of building a lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. I am confident that the Conference will produce concrete and tangible outcomes.

2 Singapore has consistently supported all efforts to achieve the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. Fundamentally, all Israelis and Palestinians share the same aspirations: to live in peace and security and to provide a safe and brighter future for their families. But for that to happen, we need good institutions and the capacity to provide the essential services such as education, healthcare and jobs for its people.

Mr Chairman

3 Singapore understands the many challenges that lie ahead for the Palestinian National Authority. As a small island-state with no natural resources, Singapore had faced similar challenges when we gained independence. We know first-hand how difficult and challenging it can be to provide housing, healthcare, education and employment for a young and growing population. Fortunately, we had benefited from the collective wisdom and assistance of others. We learned many important lessons from the experiences of other countries and adapted them to suit Singapore's circumstances. Over the years, we have managed to distil our own best practices from experiences and we are happy to share them with others. We have learnt that there are no quick fixes and policies cannot be simply transplanted wholesale from one country to another. Instead, they would have to be adjusted to a country's own context to become applicable, effective and enduring. In this context, it is critical to train Palestinians, who understand their own local conditions and context so that they are able to adjust, re-formulate and then implement policies and programmes.

Mr Chairman

4 As Singapore has benefited from others, we too stand prepared to share our experience with Palestinian officials in areas where our friends have deemed necessary and relevant for their development needs. To this end, we have identified 23 technical and capacity building courses under our Singapore Cooperation Programme and Asia Middle East Dialogue training centres. These courses cover areas such as human resource management, information and communication technology, and public governance and administration. We are also prepared to consider customising courses in English language and protocol training. These courses were identified as they corresponded with several of the PNA-proposed projects. Drawing from our S$1,000,000 technical assistance package at the Paris Donors Conference, this specially-designed package of courses we are presenting at the NAASP Conference aims to maximise flexibility to better meet the PNA's wide range of developmental needs. We will accord priority to qualified Palestinians to attend these training courses and hope the PNA will take advantage of this package that we have put together. We hope that these courses will contribute towards the capacity-building process that is so critical for the Palestinians.

5 Thank you.

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