Jeddah, KSA, 19.02.2013 – Speaking at the Expert Group Meeting on Innovation for Economic Development being held at the IDB headquarters Monday, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, Chairman, IDB Group, said that the Group welcomes sharing of innovative ideas and experiences from its member countries as well as the rest of the world to realize its motto: “Together We Build A Better future”. “As a multilateral development financial institution, the IDB takes pride in having maintained the highest credit
rating of AAA by major international rating agencies, before, during and after the global financial crisis and indeed shoulders a major responsibility to meet the expectations of its member countries”, Dr. Ali added.
The Bank has set eradication of diseases, alleviation of poverty, empowerment of women and achieving human development high on its priorities list to materialize its socio-economic development mandate in line with its Vision 2020.
The IDB Group Chairman then touched upon innovation as the main theme of the upcoming Annual Meeting of the IDB Board of Governors to be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 21-22 May, 2013, and underscored IDB Group’s plans to enhance innovative activities both at the institutional and member country levels. Elaborating that in today’s global village all developments efforts are interconnected, Dr. Ali referred to the agreement signed last December between IDB and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
for eradication of polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria as an instance of the Bank’s extensive scope of international cooperation. He then praised the participants for their presence at the meeting and said: “You are not merely contributing to the development of our 56 member countries but you are really contributing to the development of the whole world, as any effective development in IDB member countries would benefit all humanity and the entire global village.”
The two-day event brings together multi-disciplinary experts in innovation from Australia, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, and USA as well as experts form the OECD, UNDP and IFPRI.
The Expert Group Meeting is organized under four thematic sessions dealing with global perspective and grass-root innovations, innovation in IDB member countries, innovation strategies, and sectoral innovation. The recommendations of the meeting will form the basis for deliberations by IDB Governors during the 24th IDB Annual Symposium on Innovation at the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Tajikistan.