World Bank President David Malpass said that the Bank and its partners are working to improve the performance of the Palestinian economy.

Malpass spoke at an online press conference to mark the start of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington about his visit to Palestine last week and his meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials.

The international official also talked about his visit to the wastewater treatment plant in Hebron, which is financed by the World Bank, noting that this is part of the Bank's efforts to help the Palestinian government build more similar plants, which he said was "one of the positive projects" of the World Bank in Palestine.

“We want a better (economic) performance. For example, wastewater treatment is still done in Israel. We want it to be treated in the West Bank, which will reduce the cost," Malpass said.

Israel unilaterally deducts monthly amounts from the Palestinian clearing revenues, which it says are in return for receiving sewage water coming from the Palestinian territories, in addition to other services such as electricity, water and medical referrals, totaling more than $50 million per month.

According to the Ministry of Finance, these cuts totaled more than $10 billion over the past 14 years.