RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah recently presented a plan to implement a "new electricity market" in Palestine. Hamdallah said the plan will “improve electricity services to citizens, cut costs and curb reliance on external aid in the energy sector.”

Hamdallah officially introduced the plan for the market at a March 22 news conference in Ramallah. He spoke before representatives of Norway, other donor countries and the Middle East Quartet. The international community's participation is of paramount importance, he noted, stressing the need for donors’ support. The plan is in line with the 2017-2022 National Policy Agenda, in which the energy sector is a top priority.

Hamdallah had launched that national agenda Feb. 22 in the presence of representatives of several international donors, such as Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, and Ralph Tarraf, the European Union representative to Palestine.

In September, to pave the way for the new electricity market, Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh signed an agreement with the Israeli government under which the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be responsible for overseeing the commercial and operational administration of the Palestinian electricity sector in the West Bank. The PA also reached a comprehensive settlement of Palestinian accumulated outstanding debt to Israel Electric Corp., which had reached more than 2 billion shekels ($546.6 million).