Jeddah, 13/8/1434H (22/6/2013): As host to the Secretariat of the Coordination Forum of International Financing Institutions for Deauville Partnership, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group will organize an investment conference in Cairo on Tuesday, 25 June 2013. The conference will be attended by a number of Egyptian ministers, heads of corporations and economic institutions as well as investment companies from the region and representatives of other Deauville Partners. A similar event was
organized by the IDB Group in Tunis on 13 June 2013 and a number of conferences are being planned in other IDB Arab member countries which are undergoing transitional conditions. The investment conference aims at regaining the confidence of investors and attracting businessmen towards investment opportunities in Egypt and encouraging economic and social development as well as job opportunities for the youth. These country conferences would culminate in a major event due to be held in September
2013 in London, UK, which currently chairs the G-8 which launched the Deauville Partnership in 2011.

In addition to the eight industrial countries (G-8), other members in the Partnership include five IDB member countries (Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. and Turkey), ten international financial institutions including IDB, the African Development Bank, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab Monetary Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Fund, International Finance Corporation, the International Monetary Fund, the OPEC Fund for International
Development and the World Bank.

The current beneficiaries of the Deauville Partnership are Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Yemen. The Partnership provides assistance to these countries in the areas of governance, financial support, trade and integration. The coordination forum of the ten international financial institutions adopted an economic framework to support these countries on a number of issues related to governance, transparency, accountability in the field of economic activities, as well as to facilitate
dialogue with the countries concerned. It also supports implementation of country plans and preparation of projects for joint economic cooperation including provision of technical assistance.

In its capacity as the current host to the coordination forum of the international financial institutions, IDB is also cooperating with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to establish a working group to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Arab countries under the Deauville Partnership, as decided during its meeting in London last November.