Dr. Hasan Abu-Libdeh

Minister of National Economy

Palestinian National Authority

The founder and X-President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) for 13 years.
An expert in socio-demographic statistics, with B.Sc. in mathematics (Birzeit Univ. 1979), M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics
(Stanford Univ. 1981), M.Sc. in Applied Statistics and Ph.D. in Biostatistics (Cornell Univ. 1986, 1988).
Prior to his current post, he worked as the Cabinet Secretary of the Palestinian Council of Ministers in (May-Oct. 2009)
and the special advisor to the Prime Minister (July-2008-Oct.2009).
During the last fifteen years, he assumed several assignments including; Coordinator of the Gaza Emergency Support & Reconstruction Programs (Humanitarian, Housing, Private sector, agriculture), Coordinator for the development of four Industrial Estates, CEO of the
Private Sector Empowerment Program, CEO of Palestine Investment Conference, PICPalestine-2008,Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Palestine Stock Exchange, Minister of Labor, Minister of Social Affairs, Cabinet Secretary and Bureau Chief of the Prime Minister's Office, Chairman of the Quality Improvement Fund for Higher Education, member of the board of Governors of Palestine Monetary Authority, member of the board of Governors and acting Managing Director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction-PECDAR-, Deputy President of the Technical and Advisory Committees supporting the
Palestinian delegation to the bilateral and multilateral negotiations, and prof. of Math. & Statistics at Birzeit (1988-1991).

During the last three decades, Dr. Abu-Libdeh was an activist and a board member of many Palestinian organizations, including Al-Quds Open University, the Arab American University, the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute, the Policy Research Initiative for Palestine, the Council for Higher Education, and the Higher Council for Children and Motherhood, and the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the 1996 Presidential and Legislative elections.

Since the beginning of the peace process with the Madrid conference in 1991, he was appointed in several delegations to bilateral negotiations and multi-lateral working groups. He also participated in the negotiations of the Oslo-2 interim agreement with Israel
1994-1995, and later served as a member of the joint Palestinian-Israeli Steering Group, supervising the implementation of Oslo-2 agreement.

Currently, he is chairing the Boards of Palestine Standards Institute (PSI), Palestine Investment and Promotion Agency (PIPA), and Palestine Industrial Estate and Free Zone Authority (PIEFZA).

He has written in several areas including research papers on statistical modeling of skin cancer, the demographic and health statistics of West Bank and Gaza, and several articles/presentations on official Statistics as a “Public Good”. He is also known in Palestine as a short story writer and a poet. He has published two poetry and two short stories books, in addition to scores of stories, poems, and articles which were published in local journals and newspapers.

May 29, 2010