Jeddah, 21.04.2013 - Indonesia’s State Minister for National Development and Planning HE Professor Armida Alisjahbana last week signed an MOU with the IDB Group Chairman Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali on South-South cooperation. The document focuses on exchange of knowledge and expertise in the fields of combatting poverty, developing agriculture and emergency interventions at times of natural disasters. It also aims to boost the existing cooperation between Indonesia and the IDB and facilitate exchange
of expertise and technology between Indonesia and other IDB member countries to promote socio-economic development.
As a member country that enjoys economic and industrial advancements, the Minister called on IDB to participate in sharing the Indonesian experience with other member countries and underlined the need to accelerate the launch of an Islamic Micro-finance Fund with an initial capital of US$ 50 million and invited the IDB to participate in such funds to facilitate the access of low income individuals in member countries to Islamic financial services.
The IDB Group Chairman, recalling the high growth rate of Islamic banks in Indonesia, appreciated the great effort Indonesia has put into encouraging innovation and creativity as means of achieving socio-economic development in the IDB member countries. He referred to choosing the Indonesian city of Bandung as the innovation capital for the year 2013 and added that the theme of the 38th Annual Meeting of the IDB Board of Governors in Tajikistan is innovation and its impact on the economic and
social development of IDB member countries.
It is worth mentioning that, to date, IDB Group’s total amount of approved financing for Indonesia has reached US$ 3.2 billion covering the areas of education, health, transport and communication, industries, mining, power, agriculture, water supply, rural development, and Islamic banking as well as several foreign trade operations as part of the IDB Group efforts to promote the volume of intra-trade amongst its member countries.