31^st May 2019 (26 Ramadan 1440): The Islamic Summit Conference commended, during its 14^th ordinary session in Makkah, the important role of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in promoting comprehensive development in OIC Member States, strengthening their cooperation, enhancing Islamic finance, developing infrastructure and promoting the private sector. The Conference called upon Member States to significantly increase the IsDB’s capital to enable it to meet the increasing needs of its Member States.

The Conference also took note of the IsDB’s new development model, which is based on enhancing Member States’ competitiveness by linking them to global value chains, adding value to their exports and localizing employment opportunities.

As regards the IsDB’s capital increase decision, the Summit’s communique referred to the fragile conditions that some Member States are experiencing due to internal, regional and global conflicts and disputes and noted that the situation requires the IsDB to have adequate financial resources to meet reconstruction and resilience enhancement challenges, in addition to social development needs. Therefore, the Conference decided to mandate the Board of Governors of the IsDB to issue a resolution on the required capital increase.

The Summit also stressed the important role of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), a member of the IsDB Group, in reducing poverty in Member States by promoting pro-poor development and human development. To enable the fund to achieve its objectives and reach its target capital, the Conference called upon Member States that have not yet announced their contribution to the ISFD to do so expeditiously, and Member States, which announced contributions that do not reflect their economic reality, to review those contributions.

The final communique stated: “The Conference called upon Member States to honour their commitments and to make new commitments towards the ISFD to enable it to continue to deliver on major activities and projects targeting poor populations in the OIC Member States”.

The IsDB Group took part in the 14^th Summit with a delegation led by Dr. Bandar Hajjar, the Group's Chairman. On this occasion, he held several bilateral meetings with leaders and delegations of Islamic States participating in the Summit, and addressed the challenges as well as the means and ways of constructive cooperation between the IsDB Group and these countries.

The 4^th Extraordinary Islamic Summit held in Makkah in Ramadan 1433 (August 2012), had recommended to increase the IsDB’s capital. Subsequently, the declared capital of the IsDB went from ID30 billion (US$45 billion), to ID100 billion (about US$150) and the subscribed capital went from ID18 billion (about US$27 billion) to ID50 billion (US$75 billion), in order to enable the IsDB to play its development role and meet the growing development needs in Member States.

The Board of Governors of the IsDB is expected to consider determining the new increase in the IsDB’s capital during its meeting in Jeddah in 2020.