Jeddah, KSA-During a visit to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) headquarters in Jeddah, the Ambassador of France to Saudi Arabia, Mr Bertrand Besancenot, who was leading a delegation of senior French business executives, told the IDB Management, represented by Dr Abdulaziz Alhinai, Vice President (Finance), and Mr Birama Sidibe, Vice President (Operations), that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accords a particular importance to the growing cooperation between France and IDB.
"IDB and France share the same development objectives of alleviating poverty and fostering the socioeconomic development of developing countries", he added.
The Ambassador also paid tribute to IDB's role in the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and the G7 Deauville Partnership process.
With $8 billion worth of IDB project financing currently ready for tendering and a further $5 billion in the offing, French and international firms are showing growing interest in IDB-financed projects in its 56 member countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, especially in the power, transport and water sectors, where international expertise and know-how can be tapped into to bring complex infrastructure projects to fruition. Speaking on behalf of French industrialists, Mr Patrice
Fonlladosa, President and CEO of Veolia Middle East and Africa, a global utility firm, underlined the appeal of Islamic finance's risk-sharing concept as opposed to the risk-transfer model that eventually led to the global financial crisis of 2007-2008.
Dr Alhinai welcomed France's interest in Islamic finance, adding that "France has the potential of becoming an important global player in Islamic finance, underpinned by France's legal system, regulatory framework and track record of innovation". He invited France to emulate the example of the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, as these two countries have recently issued their first ever sovereign sukuk (Islamic bond) and have thus become the first Western nations to do so.