Hebron Mayor KhaledOsaily met on 16 July 2011 at Hebron Municipality with the Vice-President of KOICA Mr. Ahn Bell Chon with whom he discussed means to enhance cooperation and issues relating to the inauguration of the Korean-Palestinian Cultural Center in the coming weeks. The meeting was attended by Professor Kim Min, Coordinator of the Korean-Palestinian Project, Mr. San Bak Li, KOICA representative in Palestine and Municipal Engineer TawfiqArafa.

At the beginning of the meeting, Osaily spoke about good cooperation ties between the Municipality and KOICA as well as between the Palestinian leadership and the Korean Government and the Palestinian and Korean peoples. These ties have generated support to various projects in Palestinian governorates in general and in Hebron in particular. He thanked the Korean government for its financial support towards the creation of the Korean-Palestinian Center with a total cost of 6.5 million USD.

Osaily explained that Hebron Municipality pays special attention to youths and to their development, as young people constitute the majority of Palestinians according to statistics. Moreover, the Municipality focuses on education as it is the basis that allows Palestinians to develop and to improve their conditions.

Osailyalso touched on the many cultural and community-based centers in the city which serveHebronites who benefit tremendously from the activities they offer. Such centers were able in a short period of time to develop the capacities and polish the skills and talents of Palestinians, he said.

“Only a few weeks separate us from the inauguration of the biggest cultural center in Palestine whose name reflects the unique cooperation between Palestine and Korea. We renew our conviction that adequate infrastructure must be provided to future generations to enable them to build and empower their future State, safeguard its achievements and make the Palestinian dream of an independent and free State with full rights come true”, he added.

Mr. Chon said he was optimistic that Palestinians will succeed in achieving progress given their investment in young people and in the development of education methods and curricula. He spoke about Korea’s experience in the field of education which led to the qualitative leaps made by the country in the past 50 years. “Based on what I have seen today, Palestinian-Korean cooperation will continue. The Korean-Palestinian Cultural Center was successfully built in record time and in line with world standards. I am happy to be here today and I shall speak about these great achievements in Korea so that more cooperation and joint projects are implemented with a view to achieving what is best for Palestinians”, he said.

At the end of the meeting, and following an exchange of gifts, Mayor Osaily and his guest visited the Korean-Palestinian Cultural Center as well as the school built nearby within the same project in partnership with the Ministries of Education, Planning and Administrative Development. They also visited a number of municipal projects and glass factories in the city.