A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Islamic Development Bank Group and the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was signed Saturday outlining the framework of partnership between the two institutions for the promotion of economic and social development and alleviation of poverty in their common constituencies.
The MoU specifies that cooperation between the institutions includes capacity building in the areas of Health, Education, Halal Food Supply and Agriculture; investment promotion and economic cooperation.
The ASEAN Secretary-General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan and IDB Group President Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali signed the MoU at IDB Group headquarters in Jeddah after discussing the bilateral relations between ASEAN and IDB Group in order to finalize the areas of cooperation.
Dr. Pitsuwan expressed his enthusiasm with working alongside IDB Group to strengthen one another and emphasized the mutual benefit that will materialize from partnering.
“ASEAN can be one of the vehicles IDB can use to implement its 1440H vision,” said Dr. Pitsuwan.
Dr. Ali was hopeful that the bilateral cooperation efforts between ASEAN and IDB Group will bring about substantial improvements within the common constituents.
“There is great potentials for cooperation between our institutions,” said Dr. Ali, “we appreciate your continuous help and support to IDB and look forward to building a very strong and active partnership.”
In its (41) years of existence, the ASEAN is establishing its Charter to provide the grouping a solid legal foundation. The member countries of the ASEAN together has a population of 570 million people and is unique in its diversity of constituents, half of which are Muslim. Common member countries in ASEAN and IDB Group include Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The other countries in ASEAN are Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.