Palestine Techno Park, Palestine Monetary Authority join efforts to establish financial technology lab

The Palestine Techno Park, represented by Chairman Dr. Abdullatif Abuhijleh, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Palestine Monetary Authority, represented by Governor Azzam Shawwa, on April 2, 2018. The MoU aims to formalize cooperation between the two parties on establishing, implementing, and operating the financial technology lab inside the park’s first building. 

In his speech, Shawwa applauded the Palestine Techno Park project, calling it the first project of its kind “to contribute to honing the minds and skills of students in a modern, creative fashion.”

“Palestine has a sturdy, efficient banking system that is well-recognized by international financial and banking institutions. Of course, the Palestine Monetary Authority is always improving and developing this system to keep abreast of international developments, especially with regards to technological developments, which have great effect on the financial and banking sectors.” 

Dr. Abuhijleh reiterated the importance of networking and forging partnerships with public-sector institutions to develop creativity and innovation in knowledge technologies, which have a great effect on all sectors of the economy, especially the banking and financial sectors in Palestine. 

Palestine Techno Park Director Laith Kassis said that the agreement aims to establish a financial technology lab, which is part of the Techno Park’s strategy to “maximize the number of creativity and entrepreneurship labs in order to supply the Palestinian economy with everything it needs to fully integrate knowledge technologies into the Palestinian industry, trade, agriculture, banking, and financial sectors.” 

The Palestine Techno Park is seeking relevant technological and business parties to establish channels of cooperation and coordination. Such cooperation aims to found technological innovation and entrepreneurship labs in the Techno Park’s Palestine-Indian Techno Park Building to meet the needs of the local, regional, and international job markets. 

The Palestine Techno Park was launched more than a year ago with a generous donation from the Indian government, which included construction of the Palestine-India Techno Park Building and infrastructure works for the entire park.  The park is built on a 20-dunam area donated by Birzeit University, making it a central, distinguished site for the development of all aspects of knowledge production in Palestine.