By IINA,
Jeddah : Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz will open the 33rd annual conference of IDB the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) at Jeddah Hilton Hotel next 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.
Addressing a press conference at the IDB’s Jeddah headquarters here yesterday, Dr. Ahmed Ali also unveiled IDB’s plan to offer low-cost loans to 32 poor Muslim countries as a bulwark against the surging prices. “The IDB will submit the plan to Saudi Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahin Al-Assaf at a meeting here next week. It will help member countries to have strategic stocks, especially of grains, to be able to manage the situation of their prices,” Dr. Ali said. “It is a five-year program starting immediately. It will target the least developed states and intermediate-income countries, 32 members in all,” Ali said. The program will start this year, he said.
The IDB Chief said that 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. The IDB, which is the most successful institution run by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has given more than $50 billion in loans to finance various economic, agricultural, educational, health and infrastructure projects since its inception in 1975. Dr. Ali said the king’s opening of the conference reflects the importance of the IDB Group and the governors’ meeting. “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.