Rabat, Morocco, 22 February, 2016 - The Islamic Development Bank
(IsDB) Group is leading a roadmap to strengthen the Arab – Sub-Saharan
Africa in the next three years. The roadmap includes identifying
business opportunities and the areas of finance, building logistics
platform, supporting trade, credit and insurance, and developing the
necessary infrastructure to facilitate trade.

IsDB Group President, Dr. Bandar Hajjar, and Mr. Mamoun Buhedod,
Minister Delegate to the Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and
Digital Economy in charge of Microenterprises and the Integration of
the Informal Sector in the Kingdom of Morocco, inaugurated the
Arab-African Trade Bridges (AATB) forum, held on February 22 - 24 in
Rabat.

Addressing the event, the IsDB Group President said that the volume of
Bank's support for development programs and infrastructure projects in
Africa has reached more than US $43 billion, which included funding
for projects in infrastructure. He added that the volume of trade
financing granted to Arab and African member countries since the
establishment of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation
(ITFC), which is IsDB’s trade financing arm, has reached about US $ 15
billion, in
addition to cooperation with many strategic partners to design and
implement a number of programs and activities for the development of
trade amongst member countries.

The IsDB Group President then urged Arab and Sub-Saharan African
countries to take advantage of capacity development programs to be
available thanks to the "Arab-African Trade Bridges" program over the
next three years.

The participants in the forum and side events were trade ministers,
directors of trade promotion agencies, presidents of the chambers of
commerce and industry representing OIC Arab and Sub-Saharan African
member countries, as well as international financial institutions and
banks.

A number of memorandums of understanding were signed between the main
participants during the forum’s inauguration ceremony.
The initiative of the "Trade Bridges between Arab and Sub-Saharan
African countries” forum was proposed by ITFC during the seventh
meeting of the Coordination Group to support cooperation in the field
of foreign trade and export credit. Besides ITFC, the Coordination
Group includes: the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa
(BADEA), the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and
Export Credit (ICD), the Arab Trade Financing Program, the Arab
Monetary Fund, the OPEC Fund for
International Development, the Saudi Fund for Development and the Arab
Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation.

While in Morocco, Dr. Bandar Hajjar also visited two major projects
funded by IsDB in the city of Kenitra. The first was Kenitra Power
Station with a capacity of 315 MW which practically supports the
National Electricity Office meet the growing demand for electric power
and support the economic and industrial growth in the country. The
second project, still under construction, was the high-speed train, to
which IsDB has been funneling funds for construction of the rails for
three new stations:
Kenitra, Tangiers and Casablanca.

Furthermore, the IsDB Group Chairman also attended a workshop of
potential partners in a pilot program launched by the IsDB in
partnership with the World Bank, known as "Education for
Competitiveness (E4C)." This initiative aims to modernize and
strengthen the educational systems in the Middle East and empower
young people in the region to get better jobs in a world of increasing
competition through harmonizing education outputs with labor market
requirements.

During IsDB Group President’s visit to Morocco, the Bank organized,
jointly with the Federation of Moroccan Entrepreneurs and the Union of
Moroccan Consultants, a workshop on job opportunities provided by IsDB
for contractors and consulting firms through its portfolio in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The workshop reviewed the procurement and funding
mechanisms, methods of supporting the private sector, and mechanisms
of communicating offered opportunities.