KSA's Abdullah to open major IDB conference

Arab News - Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will open the 33rd annual conference of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group's board of governors at Jeddah Hilton on Tuesday. Ministers of finance, economy and planning from 56 IDB member countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America are expected to take part in the meeting.

The two-day conference will discuss world food crisis and increases in the prices of essential commodities, as well as measures to fight poverty in member countries, said IDB President Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali yesterday while addressing a press conference at the IDB's Jeddah headquarters.

He said an IDB team has prepared a study on food crisis after visiting some of the world's worst hit countries such as Senegal, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and that the team's findings would be presented to the governors. He also disclosed plans to provide immediate soft loans to poor Muslim countries to help them stock food.

The IDB, which is the most successful institution run by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has given more than $50 billion in loans to finance various economic, agricultural, educational, health and infrastructure projects since its inception in 1975.

Ali said the king's opening of the conference reflects the importance of the IDB Group and the governors' meeting. "The king's patronage comes as part of his contributions in the service of Islam," he added. "This conference will bring the IDB Group's decision-makers on one table to discuss economic issues to achieve sustained development of member countries," he added.

The IDB, the largest development bank in the Islamic world, gave $2.66 billion to finance development projects in member countries last year registering a 21 percent increase. It also gave $2.6 billion to finance trade deals between Muslim countries. "This brings the total finances provided by the group last year to $5.3 billion," he told reporters. He also disclosed that the bank had generated $593.7 million in revenue last year.

The IDB also extends financial assistance to some 70 Muslim communities in nonmember countries worldwide to support their educational and manpower training projects. "We have so far given 7,000 scholarships for outstanding Muslim students to pursue higher studies in medicine and engineering. Nearly 5,000 of these students have graduated," Ali added.

The IDB chief said the emergency Islamic summit called by King Abdullah in Makkah in December 2005 was a big success by all standards as it was aimed at solving the pressing problems of the Islamic world, especially poverty. The Islamic Solidarity Fund, which was set up to eradicate poverty in the member countries, was one of the summit's major results. The fund was officially launched during the last IDB governors' meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in 2007. Saudi Arabia and the IDB have contributed $1 billion each to the $10 billion fund. "The Jeddah meeting will discuss ways to harness more money for the fund," Ali said.

The president also reported substantial increase in trade between the member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), adding that it has reached 14 percent, including oil sales. However, OIC hopes to increase the volume of inter-OIC trade to at least 20 percent of their total trade within the next few years.

"We have given utmost importance to inter-OIC trade. During the OIC summit in Petrojaya, Malaysia, King Abdullah emphasized the need to increase trade between Muslim countries. The IDB Group has established a special body, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), for this purpose," Ali said. The ITFC began its operations this year. Referring to the bank's cooperation with the private sector, he said, "The IDB has established an organization named the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) for this purpose. The ICD will organize a seminar on the challenges and solutions for public-private participation in the member countries on June 1 at Westin Hotel in Jeddah in conjunction with the governors' conference.

Other important meetings to be held on the sidelines of the conference include those of the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits (ICIEC) and ITFC, and a symposium entitled "Furthering cooperation between the capital markets in the member countries," which will be held in cooperation with the Saudi Capital Market Authority.

The ITFC primarily aims to direct efforts toward increasing trade exchange between the member countries. The IDB's trade operations financing amounted to $30.2 billion by April 2008.

A number of IDB awards will also be distributed during the conference. Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar Al-Salami of Tunisia and Sheikh Abdullah bin Suleiman Al-Manea, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Islamic Scholars will receive awards for Islamic Banking and Financing. The Institute for Molecular Medicine Research in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Punjab University's Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology and the Commission of Agricultural Research in Sudan have won prizes in science and technology, each valued at $100,000.

Bangladesh's Rona Khan and Iran's Saeedah Qodas are this year's winners of the "Women Development Contribution" award valued at $50,000. Another award for NGOs worth $100,000 will be shared by the Orphanage Association in Saudi Arabia and Al-Afyah Association for Healthcare Development. The bank has increased its capital from 15 billion Islamic dinars to 30 billion (one Islamic dinar is equal to approximately 1.5 US dollars.