UN Wakes Up: 12 Billion Given To The PA Made No Difference

Think of it as PalCare--sort of like ObamaCare, except that what it insures is corruption.
Of course, we have no say in PalCare and how our tax dollars are being used, unlike in ObamaCare.
Oh, right...

Why is this man smiling?

Why shouldn't he smile--it's not as if the money is going to stop coming in any time soon.

$12 Billion to PA Had No Economic Impact; Where Did it Go?

A Palestinian Authority woman who addressed the United Nation's Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People on March 25 noted that years of foreign aid appears to have done little good for the PA economy. Dr. Ghania Malhis, chairwoman of the board of trustees at the Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah, noted that billions of dollars spent over the past decade have not even restored the PA economy to its 1999 performance.


Malhis estimated that foreign countries had donated a total of $12 billion to the PA since 1995. That figure did not include billions of dollars in aid provided by international aid groups such as UNRWA and other NGO's, she noted. Aid to the PA is increasing steadily: the PA received an average of one billion dollars a year between 2001 and 2005, $1.5 billion in 2007, $1.8 billion in 2009, and an estimated $2 billion is expected in 2010.

The amount of aid provided is particularly high when compared to the number of PA Arabs – the highest estimated PA population is 3.9 million, and more conservative estimates put the number of PA Arabs at 2.6 million – and the PA's GDP is an estimated $4.5 billion annually.

And yet, Malhis said, it has been difficult to note any positive impact of these enormous sums on the PA economy. The GDP is 13 percent lower than it was in 1999, and GDP per capita is down by 30 percent, she said. .

Two main contributing factors are the large PA public payroll, which accounts for almost 60 percent of the PA's spending, and the money poured into the armed forces, which is more than the combined amounts spent on health and education, Malhis said. Malhis elaborated:

1. The production capacity in the occupied territories was higher in the early nineties prior to the peace process,

Read the whole thing.

Does anyone really think that this UN seminar is going to put the brakes on the rush to create a second Palestinian state--one that will continue to expect financial aid for the foreseeable future?

Technorati Tag: PA and Palestinian Authority and Abbas.