Besides the delegation from North Rhine-Westphalia, the Palestinian Minister of Planning, Dr. Samir Abdullah, the Director of the KAS-partner IPCC, Mr. Rami Nasrallah as well as further well-known academics of Birzeit University participated in the round-table discussion. Subsequently, during a tour of the Birzeit University Campus, Dr. Rüttgers visited the Institute of Law (IoL), which is a long-standing partner of KAS, for a briefing on its research.

The Palestinian Minister of Planning, Dr. Samir Abdallah, underlined the Palestinian determination to reach a peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and introduced the participants to the Palestinian National Reform- and Development Plan, as prepared by the Palestinian government. During the ensuing discussion Mr. Rüttgers expressed his concerns regarding the political and economic situation of the Palestinian Territories and talked about possible opportunities for cooperation between North Rhine-Westphalia and the Palestinian Territories. In this context Mr. Rüttgers introduced the participants to an exchange programme with North Rhine-Westphalian Universities that has been extended to Palestinian scholarship holders. Moreover, further cooperation on an expert level in the future has been agreed on, aiming to produce concrete long-term cooperation proposals.

Additionally, Mr. Ruettgers also visited the successful Palestinian company Pharmacare, whose CEO Bassem Khoury also serves as President of the Palestinian Industry-Association (PFI), another partner of KAS Ramallah. Together with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad he welcomed the first delivery of pharmaceutical products for the European market. In the framework of this celebration Dr. Rüttgers also met for bilateral talks with Salam Fayyad on the current status of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.