This morning, Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the Municipality of Beit Jala received a high-level delegation that included Mr. Volker Oel, Deputy Head of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for the Middle East and his companying colleagues, and Mr. Mark Engelhardt, Director of the German Development Bank KfW for the Middle East and Mr. Waddah Hamdallah, Deputy Director of the German Development Bank Kfw Middle East, and Ms. Anya Goum, Director General of the German Association for International Cooperation, and her colleague Ms. Maram Nazzal, and Mr. Mohammed Al Ramahi, Director General of the Local Development and Lending Fund for Local Authorities, and Engineer Ashraf Qurei, Technical Supervisor of the Local Development and Lending Fund for Local Authorities.
This meeting came to talk about the municipality’s projects that were supported by the German government and the German Development Bank KFW through MDLF and the German Association for International Cooperation GIZ, and their impact and importance in developing the city and securing a better life for its citizens.
The delegation was received by Mr. Karim Al-Hadwa acting mayor of Beit Jala and the staff of the municipality’s departments.
Mr. Karim El-Hadwa, acting mayor of Beit Jala, welcomed the guests on behalf of the members of the Municipal Council and staff, expressed his thanks and gratitude to the guest delegation for their continuous support to the municipality in order to improve the municipal services to the 18,000 residents of Beit Jala. As well he stressed the importance of the joint cooperation in order to ensure the continuity of providing the best services to citizens and upgrading the city to be a civilized and vibrant city capable of keeping pace with development and contributing to achieving the goals of sustainable development, after that a short film was shown about the city of Beit Jala. In his turn, Mr. Mohammed Al-Ramahi, Director General of the Local Authorities Development and Lending Fund MDLF, welcomed the delegation, thanking the German government for its continuous support to the local authorities through their generous fund and for the joint cooperation between the two parties during the previous and current period, especially in funding important projects targeting the different sectors of environment and infrastructure, development projects and capacity building packages in order to achieve a better life for the Palestinian citizens. The staff of the Planning and Projects and Engineering Departments in the municipality gave a detailed presentation on the projects that the municipality was able to accomplish, which are included in the strategic plan 2018-2021 and targeted the four development areas: environment and infrastructure, social and economic development, management and good governance, through the MDLF’s continuous support during the previous and current period. The projects included the rehabilitation of internal roads, the restoration of the municipality’s building, the construction of a citizens service center and the ten capacity-building packages, and the establishment of a geographic information system GIS department, and installing street lighting of energy-saving LED lighting units funded by the German government in partnership with the two German cities of Jena and Bergisch Gladbach, the German twin cities with the municipality of Beit Jala.
They also discussed future projects that will be implemented, the most important of which is the comprehensive field survey project, the maintenance of streets, and the cleaning and rehabilitation of Hosh Al-Qattan. Then the guest delegation made a quick tour in all the departments of the municipality and praised the high quality services and efficiency by the municipality to its citizens.
