Under the auspices of this memorandum, Dar Al Hekma University will offer academic, vocational and training programs, including the undergraduate and master's programs for the Bank Group and its partners both in Member Countries and in Muslim communities in non-member countries.

Moreover, the agreement, also, included the cooperation of both signatories on advisory services in some sectors such as business and the financial sector, in addition to cooperation in providing training opportunities for students and graduates of Dar Al-Hekma within the Bank Group and its partners further to collaboration in conducting studies and research on topics of common interest.

During the signing ceremony, Dr. Bandar Hajjar underlined the importance of cooperation in the field of education as a cornerstone in supporting development in the member countries, especially the least developed ones. He stressed that the Bank started two years ago in restructuring its educational programs, especially scholarships. In this regard, The IsDB reached out to leading universities and centers of excellence across the globe to support the Bank's Scholarship Program. As a result of this interest and the consequent development of the Scholarship Program, the latter exhibited an increase in the number of applicants from 2000 back in 2017 to about 180,000 applicants this year, emanating from about 180 countries around the world. His Excellency, Dr, Hajjar invited the University to take advantage of the potential and in-depth expertise available at the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI).

Mr. Qaies praised the Bank's role in supporting education in the Member Countries. He stated that Dar Al-Hekma University is working on distinguishing its programs and wishes to benefit from the Bank's educational programs and its well-established relations with world-class universities in order to forge similar strong ties.

Mr. Julaidan called for the establishment of a working group between the two institutions to implement the joint work programs contained in the Memorandum of Understanding.