The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organized on, Saturday 21 June 2008, at its headquarters in Jeddah, a workshop on "Building Strategic Partnerships with the Centers of Excellence (CoE) in the Islamic World"; as a part of a new initiative to forge strategic partnership with selected private sector firms, considered to be centers of excellence in the region, to replicate their success and enable other member countries of the IDB to share their knowledge.

The workshop was attended by a number of leading businessmen from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some neighboring countries, discussed sustainable business models to leverage the brand and knowledge of companies that excelled in their respective areas within the Islamic world, and create a synergy benefiting other member countries of the IDB.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the President of Islamic Development Bank said that the Bank is embarking on a new direction to play a proactive role in supporting the economic and social development of its member countries through partnering with the private sector and encouraging cross-border investment. "The initiative that IDB started is to identify and join hands with the regional brands and take that expertise to the benefit of other member countries" he said.

Engineer Sobhi Batterjee, President and CEO of Saudi German Hospitals Group (SGHB) shared with the IDB workshop participants, the experience of SGHB of establishing world class hospitals in Sanaa, Yemen, and Hail, Saudi Arabia. IDB had supported these projects and their success demonstrates the power of public private partnership as a powerful business model.

The IDB initiative is based on the fact that there are private firms within the Islamic Countries that excelled in their respective areas, perfected business models, systems and operating methodologies with regional relevance, and emerged as strong brands in a number of areas such as healthcare, services, IT, manufacturing, retail, pharmaceuticals, and education, etc . Through innovative approaches and hard work, these firms have created strong internal competencies that are sustainable and better adapted to meet regional requirements. These firms have already proved their capabilities that are truly world class. As centers of excellence these deserve to be exposed to the Islamic world, which could benefit from their achievements.