Ramallah, the General Assembly at Palestine Telecommunication Company will held its 8th annual ordinary and extraordinary meetings at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah and the Commodore Hotel in Gaza. At the meeting, Board of Directors discussed Paltel’s financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2004.

The technology of Video Conferencing has been deployed by Palestine Telecommunication Company for live sight & sound transmission of the meeting between assembled shareholders from Gaza, and Ramallah. Crucial decisions as profit distribution and approving financial statements will be tackled during the meeting. The report of the Board of Directors and their recommendations are on top of the agenda. Financial and administrative reports for 2004 will be ratified. The board and management will be discharged. Appointment of accredited financial auditors for the coming financial year, 2005 will be approved. At the end, recommendations on profits distribution for the year 2004 will be announced. 

The meeting was kicked off with opening remarks from Mr. Sabih AlMasri, President of the Board of Directors said: “After seven years of the establishment of Palestine Telecommunication Company, I can say that the last year constituted a bridge that carried Paltel into the future”. He added that: “earnings last year reached up to JD145 million. We propose to distribute 20% of the original share nominal value as profit; i.e. JD13. 5 million, in addition we will further discuss the proposition to increase the company’s capital by 50%”. 

Mr. AlMasri added that: “we are working hard to provide creative solutions along with constant update for our network. We aim to reach out to 1 million customers. Our focus is rather the social service and the humanitarian responsibility towards our Palestinian Community. Paltel provided around US$ 1.6 for the social services sector during the past year”.

Dr. Abdul Malik Jaber added that what Paltel has achieved should be an example to follow. He mentioned that the challenges and problems faced are not normal. “We face many challenges due to the Israeli closures and checkpoints, in addition we have problems installing towers that are beyond our needs. There is no direct international linkage and the illegal competition from the Israeli market”. He added that despite all these challenges and difficulties, Paltel managed to present a story of success outlining the coming future through the efforts of its employees. He also said: “We encourage any clean form of regulated competition. Competition implies that competing parties work under same circumstances and conditions”. 

On the claim about Paltel’s monopoly of the market, Jaber said: “this is not true and never was Paltel’s intention”

On Paltel’s annual report, Jaber said: “we are weaving the threads of the future”. Paltel aims to place Palestine in a more prominent position that is more developed at all levels especially the technology one.

It is worth mentioning that the Report includes chapters on the activities and major accomplishments of the Palestine Telecommunication Company during 2004, in addition to the major projects Paltel was involved in like that of the Free-Internet Service that increased number of subscribers from 246,000 to 290,000 persons.

It is worth mentioning that Palestine Telecommunication Company is adopting a social responsibility theme that was launched two years ago whereby Paltel supported many creativity and excellence centers for Education with the Forum for Young Scientists in different localities in Palestine.