Jeddah, KSA, 21.10.2014 – The Board of Executive Directors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) at the end of its 300th meeting (which started on 19 October) at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and under the Chairmanship of IDB President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, approved US$ 814.2 million for development financing.
The new financings were mostly allocated for sectors such as air transport, power, water, roads and human development in member countries as well as for education and vocational training in Muslim communities in non-member countries.
Amongst the approvals of the Board was US$ 230.2 million for Development of Sharm El –Sheikh International Airport Project (Phase-II) – Egypt. IDB has already contributed US$ 226.8 million to the project and with the new approval IDB contribution to the project reaches US$ 457 million.
In the power sector, the Board approved US$ 152.5 million for the Maria Gleta Power Plant (Phase I) in Benin. An amount of US$ 60 million went to the Bibiyana Base-Load Combined Cycle Independent Power Plant Project in Bangladesh.
In the water sector, the Board Members approved US$ 128 million for the Greater Beirut Water Supply Augmentation Project in Lebanon.
The roads sector received US$ 118.5 million of financing comprising: US$ 80 million for Upgrading of Kantchari-Diapaga-Benin Border Road in Burkina Faso as well as US$ 38.5 million for the Construction of Sanam-Tebaram Road in Niger which is part of a strategic road that connects the city of Niamey, Niger’s captial to the Trans-Sahara route that in turn connects Algiers, Algeria’s Capital to Lagos in Nigeria. Another US$ 15 million was approved for Rural Access Road Improvement Project in
the Sylhet Division in Bangladesh.
For human development, the IDB Board approved US$ 44.5 million towards the Development of Higher Education in Uzbekistan and US$ 31.6 million for GIETRENK, Sierra Leone’s Community Driven Development (Phase-II).
Other approvals included US$ 905,000 as grants for special assistance operations under IDB’s Waqf Fund for five educational, cultural and vocational projects in Sri Lanka, Guyana, Germany, Ethiopia, and Austria.
The Board approved a US$ 5.1 billion operation plan (not including the activities of the other members of the IDB Group) for the new fiscal year 2014-2015, as well as the administrative budget for the Bank and its Funds and Programs. The Board also reviewed a number of reports on the Bank’s operations and other activities.