Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 7 October 2022 – On the sidelines of the first day of global events at COP27 Summit, now underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) President and Group Chairman, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, has met with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President, Mr. Jin Liqun.

At the meeting, President Al Jasser expressed pleasure over the ongoing cooperation with AIIB since the signing of the IsDB-AIIB MoU in June 2018 in Mumbai, India, during AIIB’s 3^rd Annual Meeting. 

“We have 29 common member countries and IsDB is intensely interested in scaling-up cooperation and co-financing with AIIB in areas of mutual interest to capitalize on each other's strengths and comparative advantages,” Dr. al Jasser underlined at the meeting.

IsDB and AIIB are both South-led MDBs and are strongly focused on infrastructure development.

At the meeting, the IsDB president also elaborated on the Bank’s strategic objectives over the period 2023-2025 as (i) boosting recovery, (ii) tackling poverty and building resilience, and (iii) driving green economic growth.

IsDB and AIIB have co-financed Bangladesh's US$270m BOO Bhola IPP, a 220MW power plant, where IsDB and AIIB provided US$70m and US$60m, respectively. The two MDBs have also worked on developing gas storage facilities in Turkey.

The two chiefs also discussed the potential co-financing of the 573km Trans-Afghan Railway Project, which will connect Central Asia (Uzbekistan) with ports on the Arabian Sea.

Meantime, both sides acknowledged the adverse impacts of ongoing geopolitical and trade tensions, which have dislocated global food and energy markets amidst tightening monetary policies in advanced countries to contain inflation as well as the fiscal constraints and elevated debt levels compound these successive external shocks in many countries.

“We look forward to scaling up cooperation and co-financing to support mutual member countries' green and digital transitions,” Dr. Al Jasser stated.