Remarks by the Administrator’s Special Assistant for the Middle East, George Laudato, at the ACP-USAID MOU Signing Ceremony

By George Laudato
Point Four Conference Room, USAID Washington, D.C. , , Signing Ceremony of an MOU between USAID and the American Charities for Palestine
August 1, 2008

I would like to welcome you all here today to this event which has taken some time to arrange but we are all delighted that we have been able to bring it together.

Under the leadership of Administrator Fore, USAID has continued to maintain a very a robust program throughout the Middle East, the most important including a $400m program in 2008 for the Palestinian people. And if you all read the article in The Post over the weekend about pledges made and money flowing, I can say with a relative high degree of truthfulness that our money flows and our money flows fast. So when we sign, we also deliver and I think it makes the level of our assistance that much more relevant.

This funding along with Administrator Fore’s emphasis on partnerships, I believe has made our work with the Palestinian people incredibly important both for the Palestinians and for ourselves. And therefore we are delighted with the events that will take place today and with that I would like to welcome all of you here and introduce Administrator Fore.