Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 1-2 June 2022 - The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) held a series of bilateral meetings with various partner organizations on 1-2 June 2022 on the side lines of the 2022 IsDB Group Annual Meetings in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The meetings aimed to discuss the progress of projects under implementation as well potential future collaborations with the various institutions to proactively support the Islamic finance industry with innovative and sustainable development solutions.

Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, Acting Director General of IsDBI and Chief Economist, led the Institute’s team during the meetings, supported by Dr. Rami Abdelkafi, Team Leader for Knowledge Leaders, and Mr. Syed Faiq Najeeb, Senior Islamic Finance Specialist.

In one of the sessions, the IsDBI team hosted H.E. Dr. Khaled Al-Mabrouk Abdullah Al-Mabrouk, Minister of Finance of Libya, where they discussed the implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed recently by the IsDB and Libyan government.

The Minister requested IsDBI’s support in enhancing capacity of various development finance institutions in Libya. The IsDBI assured of its full support to Libya and will assign relevant teams to engage in technical discussions in due course.

The IsDBI team also held separate meetings with the heads of three Islamic finance infrastructure institutions. These were Dr. Bello Lawal Danbatta, Secretary General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Dr. Rami Sulaiman Abudaqqa, Chief Executive Officer of International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Arbitration (IICRA), and Dr. Abdelilah Belatik, Secretary General of the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI).

In these meetings, discussions centered on the Institute’s technical support to the infrastructure institutions as well as collaboration in various areas including capacity building and knowledge dissemination. IsDBI assured the institutions of its support in working together to provide innovative solutions to the present and near-future challenges of the Islamic finance industry.

The IsDBI team also held discussions with Mr. Sahba Sobhani, Director of the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector Development (IICPSD), Mr. Hassan Moussa Yassin, Executive Director of the Central Bank of Djibouti, and Mr. Gonzalo Rodriguez, Director of the Saudi-Spanish Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (SCIEF).

During the sessions, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem underscored the significance of proactively raising the bar in enhancing value-based solutions and guidance to the industry that not only strengthens Islamic finance industry’s resilience but also solves the development challenges of IsDB member countries.

In the meeting with UNDP IICPSD, the discussions took stock of progress in current collaborations as well as plans for future projects to be implemented under the joint IsDB-UNDP Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform (GIFIIP).

In the other meetings, the IsDBI assured of its support to the Central Bank of Djibouti in developing its Islamic finance strategy. The Institute also agreed to explore the possibility of renewing the Islamic Finance Changemakers Competition for a second round to be jointly organized with the SCIEF.

The bilateral meetings concluded overall on a very positive note with ambitious development plans for the Islamic finance and economic industry, led by IsDBI in collaboration with its various partner institutions.