Jeddah, December 27, 2017 - H.E. Dr. Bandar Hajjar, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and H.E. Prof. Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of National Planning for Indonesian Development, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Jeddah to promote partnership between the Bank and Indonesia in the exchange of experiences among the Bank's member countries as a platform for developing cooperation among Member States.

According to the MOU, areas of exchange of experiences include agriculture, fisheries, health and population, vocational and technical education and training, pharmacy, planning and budgeting, microfinance, transportation, technology, industry, disaster risk reduction and mitigation and Islamic finance. Indonesia is paying increasing attention to enhancing the exchange of experiences with the Bank's member countries, and a project is being developed to exchange experience between Suriname and Indonesia in the field of artificial insemination of livestock.

New projects have been identified to exchange experiences between Indonesia and Morocco and Tunisia in the field of vaccine development, which will include Biofarma, a company linked to the Indonesian Government and willing to share its knowledge and expertise in the manufacture of medicines.

It is worth mentioning that the Government of Indonesia has committed to annual allocations in its budget for projects in exchange of experiences among Member States. This program includes stakeholders in Indonesia, which initiated the project since 2014 with a cumulative amount of US $ 7.34 million. The first exchange of experiences between the Kyrgyz Republic and Indonesia was in the field of artificial insemination of livestock, with the Government of Indonesia contributing US $ 938,000, representing 68 percent of the total project amount of US $ 1.37 million. The second project between Senegal and Indonesia was in disaster risk management (flood mitigation). The Government of Indonesia contributed US $ 900,000, representing 13 percent of the total project amount of US $ 7 million.