By IINA,
Jeddah : The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced allocation of $2.47 billion financing for the year 2009. This figure is a 15 percent increase over the financing earmarked in 2008. “This means that IDB, which groups 56 Muslim countries, was not affected by the global financial crisis,” said Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, president of the bank. Speaking to Asharq Al Awsat pan Arabic daily, Dr. Ali said that an amount of $2.09 billion will be set aside for ordinary financing while $381 million will be earmarked for extending soft financing to implement projects and programs in the member countries. “Of the amount for soft financing, $357 will be made available for extending loans under the framework of its subsidiary, the Islamic Solidarity Fund to combat poverty among the impoverished member countries of IDB,” he said adding that IDB has so far extended financing amounting to a total of $56.9 billion to the member countries as well as to some 72 Islamic communities in non-member countries ever since its formation.
Dr. Ali said that the Islamic banking attained greater world attention in the wake of the global financial meltdown that heavily hit the leading global financial giants. “The global crisis has resulted in increasing the relevance of Islamic banking and therefore, we have to take steps to establish more Islamic Shariah-compliant global financial houses. They would present to the world a new vision and a new way in the management of assets, and investment of properties,” he said. The IDB president said that the bank had drawn up a strategic vision for the coming years up to 2020, called ‘IDB 2020 Vision for the sake of Human Dignity’. “The bank had sought the support of a group of experts and specialists for the same,” he said adding that the panel was headed by former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Muhammad. “The Vision is aimed at accelerating the economic and social development, alleviating poverty and bringing down the percentage of the poor in the Islamic communities.
Meanwhile, the 257th Session of IDB’s Board of Executive Directors concluded at the headquarters of the bank here yesterday. The meeting, chaired by its President Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali, discussed a number of issues on the agenda that included a working paper on the effect of the global financial crisis on IDB and its member countries under the title: “Prevailing conditions in Sub-Saharan countries”, and another working paper on “ achieving the goals the IDB 2020 vision, the Millennium Development Goals, and the achievements of member countries”, in addition to a report on the implementation of the Jeddah declaration for helping the least developed member countries affected by the global food crisis.
The meeting also reviewed a number of important reports, one of which was the draft agenda and documentation of the 34th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors to be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, at the level of Finance, Economy and Planning Ministers of the bank’s member countries. The Board looked into financing new developmental projects for member countries and extending grants from IDB Waqf Fund for Muslim communities in non-member countries. It also considered a report on the IDB President receiving an Order of Merit (first class) from the President of Niger, and a progress report regarding the implementation of Business Enhancement Systems Transformation (BEST), besides reviewing the Annual Report of the International Centre for Bio-saline Agriculture (ICBA) , managed by IDB and based in Dubai, as well as ICBA’s 2009 budget and 2008 achievements.