11.02.2014, Jeddah, KSA – The final leg of the High Level Fora to review the performance of the IDB Group over the past 40 years and discuss the formulation of the strategy for the next ten years commenced here on Tuesday at the IDB Headquarters.

Several Members of the Boards of Directors of the IDB Group’s entities as well as representatives of the Arab countries public and private sectors in addition to representatives of the Muslim Communities in non-member countries attended the preliminary meetings.

The recommendations of the meetings are expected to feature on the agenda of the High Level Ministerial Session which will be opened by Minister of Finance and IDB Governor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, HE Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf. IDB Governors from the other Arab Member Countries will also attend the Forum which is held in the framework of preparations for the IDB Group’s upcoming 40th Anniversary Celebrations that will take place concurrently with the 39th Annual Meeting of the Bank’s Board of
Governors in June 2014, in Jeddah, KSA.

The preliminary meetings on Tuesday, focused on a number of discussions including partnership between the Bank and the private sector while presentations were made on experiences of member countries with IDB Group entities serving the private sector. The participants further discussed the main points proposed to be included in the Group’s strategy towards private sector for the next 10 years.

Also featuring in the meetings were the discussions on IDB Group’s role in supporting the Islamic banking and financial sector in addition to ways and means of promoting such a role in the future. The experts reviewed the economic outlook at regional and international levels. The participants commended the IDB for maintaining its AAA rating for the 12th consecutive year from the 3 major globally recognized rating agencies. It is worth mentioning that IDB Group’s development financing in its
Arab member countries has has so far reached US$ 35 billion covering different sectors such as infrastructure, education, health, roads and transport, water supply, power generation and rural development.

Amongst the preliminary meetings was a workshop on assessing IDB’s role in supporting the Muslim communities in non-member countries where delegations from Muslim communities in North America and Europe were attending. IDB Group’s continued assistance to Muslim communities in 67 non-member countries has so far reached US$ 550 million inclusive of more than 1700 projects in education, and health
Moreover, nearly 12 thousand students from these communities have benefitted from IDB Group scholarships in medicine, agriculture, computer sciences, pharmacology, etc. worth close to US$ 80 million.

The ministerial meeting on 12 February, is expected to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Group’s performance during the past four decades and the future challenges in addition to the financing priorities of the regional governments in the next decade to be incorporated in the IDB Group’s 10 year strategy.

The High Level Regional Forum in Jeddah comes after three similar regional fora which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Almaty, Kazakhstan; and Dakar, Senegal.