Singapore : Tuesday, September 19, 2006

At separate meetings held for the reconstruction of Iraq and Lebanon, in conjunction with the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Singapore, the Islamic Development Bank reaffirmed its commitment to participate extensively in the reconstruction of war-torn countries of Iraq and Lebanon.

These meetings were organized in the wake of the International compact for Iraq agreed by donor countries earlier and the efforts of donor countries and development financing institutions such as the IDB to help Lebanon rebuild its infrastructure which has been destroyed by Israel.

The meetings agreed to organize separate donor meetings on Iraq and Lebanon in the next two months. In this context, it may be noted that the IDB had pledged a combined aid package of around US$ 500 million and US$ 250 million to support reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Lebanon respectively. At a separate meeting, the World Bank President had pledged US$ 70 million for the reconstruction of Lebanon.