New Delhi [India], August 19 (ANI): Palestinian Ambassador Abdullah M Abu Shawesh welcomed India's commitment to establish a vocational training center in Palestine, expressing hope that the project will be operationalised soon to empower the Palestinian people.
The envoy's remarks follow high-level diplomatic discussions in Ramallah between Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary (CPV & OIA) Sripriya Ranganathan and Palestinian leadership.
"India also promised to establish a vocational training center in Palestine and I hope that very soon this project will be implemented and will be running in Palestine. This will help the Palestinian people," Ambassador Abu Shawesh stated.
Addressing Palestine's own technical capacities, the envoy emphasised that despite ongoing challenges, Palestinians possess significant "relative advantages" driven by an educated workforce and deep agricultural expertise.
"We Palestinians, we are educated people. 97.3 percent is the literacy rate in Palestine. We have a lot of relative advantages especially when it comes to the agriculture sector," Abu Shawesh noted. "We can help and we can do something very significant and a game-changer... in the citrus sector, we can do something very significant. We have the Jaffa trademark and anyone can just Google Jaffa trademark, it's a citrus, an orange. It was there more than 140 years ago."
The ambassador further highlighted Palestine's specialised knowledge in traditional and modern farming techniques, offering to share technical expertise with India.
"We are well expert in planting the palm trees. We are well expert also in planting the olive trees and the modern agriculture, I mean the greenhouse agriculture. We are well expert in this regard and I hope that we will do something, we can transfer this technology to India if we have the opportunity to do so," the envoy added.
Earlier, officials stated that the partnership between India and Palestine is driving significant expansion in capacity building and economic development. An MoU was executed to establish a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Centre within the Palestinian National Printing Press to deliver employment-oriented skill development, the officials added.
Meanwhile, officials said that the construction continues on the India-funded Palestinian Institute of Diplomacy, and the Turathi women's empowerment and heritage project facility has reached its final furnishing stage to provide skills training and marketing support for Palestinian women.
Notably, according to officials, the bilateral engagements also marked significant milestones across healthcare, capacity building, and digital innovation. On the healthcare front, the signing of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formally launched the construction of a 200-bed super-speciality hospital equipped with a modern trauma centre to serve Jenin and neighbouring governorates, including Tulkarm and Tubas.
In addition to plans for deploying an Indian field hospital in Gaza, officials stated that the consignment of essential medicines, part of a larger relief package that includes vital anti-cancer drugs requested by Palestinian authorities, was formally handed over to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, while officials confirmed that work is underway to organise another Artificial Limb Fitment Camp following the successful 2023 initiative. (ANI)
"Will help Palestinian people": Envoy Abu Shawesh welcomes India's plan to set up vocational training centre
