In his statement to the 84th meeting of the Development Committee at the annual meeting of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, on Saturday, the President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, reaffirmed the Group’s commitment to working closely with the development community in its quest for providing resources for fighting poverty and generating jobs for the unemployed youth. He called on the G20 nations to develop a long-term strategy to help countries explore better ways for responding to citizens’ aspirations and desires for economic and social reforms, particularly towards enhancing infrastructure facilities for the movement and exchange of goods and services, improving education and research to enhance efficiency; and strengthening natural resources management.
Dr. Ali further touched upon supply shocks arising from soaring oil prices and Japan’s earthquake, financial shocks namely the Euro-zone status, the US debt crises and downgrading of US credit rating as well as high youth unemployment as three important factors which continue to overshadow the outlook of the economic recovery in the world. He referred to bolstering domestic and regional markets through intra-investment and intra-trade as the best solutions for IDB Group member countries to cope with emerging challenges and chart a strong and sustainable recovery path. On the expected economic performance of IDB member countries, the IDB Group President elaborated that 56 member countries of his top rated development bank group are projected to grow by 4.7 percent in 2011 while the Group’s Sub-Saharan African members are expected to post a 5.3 percent growth in the current calendar year.
Elsewhere in his statement, Dr. Ali explained that IDB, in addition to numerous knowledge-based and strategy-oriented programs, has formulated a multi-tiered program to assist the Arab countries that experienced the recent turmoil to achieve better alignment with economic growth and employment generation particularly by supporting SMEs and providing improved access to microfinance facilities. “IDB is preparing a US$ 4 billion financial envelope for Egypt and Tunisia and by the end of the current year fast track development packages worth US$ 50 million shall be approved for each of the two countries to finance growth of micro, small and medium enterprises”. He also spoke of the imminent launching of a US$ 200 million SMEs Fund by IDB’s Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to boost employment and support growth in the non-oil private sector.
According to Dr. Ali, IDB has been pursuing a very active partnership with the global development community including with the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Arab Trade Financing Program (AFTP), Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), etc., to spearhead development strategies including private sector-led economic growth, economic modernization and job creation as well as regional and global integration.
The Islamic Development Bank was established in 1975 and later developed in to a full group spearheading human, economic and social development in its member countries as well as Muslim communities worldwide with a focus on the private sector. The cumulative financing of development projects by the AAA rated development bank since establishment has well exceeded US$ 70 billion.