Jeddah, KSA, 25.03.2014 – The Board of Executive Directors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) which started on Sunday 23 March, approved US$ 515.6 million to support various socio-economic development projects in member countries as well as Muslim communities in non-member countries.

The approvals are mainly in the energy sector with a total of US$ 490 million broken down as follows: US$ 220 million for the 600 MW Jamshoro Coal Power Plant Project in Pakistan; US$ 90 million for Safi Coal Independent Power Plant Project in Morocco; US$ 83.4 million for Regional Electricity Interconnection Project in Senegal; US$ 60 million Expansion of the Noukchott Dual Fuel Power Plant Project in Mauritania; and US$ 36.02 million for Rural Electrification Project Phase II in Cameroon.

The education sector received US$ 17.8 million covering US$ 7.5 million to Support Bilingual Primary Education Project in Burkina Faso; and US$ 10.27 million for Reforming the Technical & Vocational Education and Training Project in Suriname.

In the transport sector, the Board approved a US$ 6 million technical assistance loan to the Republic of Niger for preparation of the Development of the Regional Railway Loop connecting four IDB member countries namely; Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Amongst other approvals was a US$ 1 million emergency assistance from IDB’s Waqf Fund for the refugees from the Central African Republic in neighboring countries
The Board also approved US$ 780,000 as grant in the framework of Special Assistance Operations Under the IDB Waqf Fund to Muslim Communities in non-member countries for four educational projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, India and Malawi.

Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, IDB President and Chairman of the Board stated that the Board reviewed the draft 2013 Annual Report of the Bank as well as the documents of the upcoming 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors to be held in Jeddah in June 2014. The board also discussed an assessment report of the Bank’s performance during the past 40 years, in the light of the outcomes of the four high level regional fora which the Bank organized this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Almaty,
Kazakhstan; Dakar, Senegal; and Jeddah, KSA.