Istanbul - 20th Nov. 2013 - The Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali has called on IDB member countries to raise the targeted volume of Intra-Trade to 20% by the year 2015, as recommended during the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in 2005.
The IDB Group Chairman who was speaking at the opening session of the 29th Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul, Turkey, in the presence of H.E. Dr Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey and the current Chairman of COMCEC, exhorted the COMCEC and the Coordination Group on Intra-Trade “to seek ways and means to realize the desired increase in the intra-trade volume before the next Islamic Summit in Turkey in 2016”. He also recalled the
Aid for Trade Initiative for Arab States which was led and launched by the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the trade arm of the IDB Group, stating that the Initiative could be a major tool in increasing intra-trade.

Turning to the financing performance of some the IDB Group affiliates, he said that the total trade financing of ITFC for the year 1434H has topped US$5 billion, double the average level of operations in the last five years. He also said that the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit (ICIEC) has provided insurance facilities of more than US$ 3 billion for export credit last year.

On the sidelines of the Meeting, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Republic of Niger, the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation and the IDB, to cooperate under the Alliance to Fight Avoidable Blindness and establish the first Ophthalmic Center under The Alliance in Niger for an amount of US$ 2 million. The IDB will provide some medical equipment for the Center. The MoU was signed by Niger Ambassador to Turkey, H.E. Abdullahi Muradi; Turkish Relief Foundation
President, Mr. Fahmi Boluent Yaldriem; and IDB Group Chairman, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali.

The COMCEC opening session was attended, among other dignitaries, by Dr. Cevdet Yilmaz, Minister of Development of the Republic of Turkey and Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).