Jeddah, KSA, 02.06.2014 – Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), received on Monday, at the IDB Group headquarters in Jeddah, a high level delegation from the World Bank led by its President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. Dr. Kim was accompanied by Mrs. Inger Andersen, Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, along with a number of World Bank Group senior officials.

The meeting provided the opportunity to review bilateral cooperation between the two institutions and discuss recent developments, including assistance to the Arab countries in transition, Palestine, Somalia and the Sahel region.

The two development finance chiefs also discussed the Deauville Partnership, a partnership between the G8, Gulf countries, Turkey and 10 international financial institutions to support Arab countries in transition through financial and technical assistance, particularly in youth and women employment and the development of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Dr. Ali commended the efforts of the World Bank and the international community and said that "scaled-up countercyclical support was still needed to help the Arab countries in transition to return to job-creating economic growth". He also thanked Dr. Kim for the World Bank's support for the Education for Employment (E4) initiative, a partnership between IDB and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to address the education-employment nexus across the Arab world.

Dr. Kim, for his part, congratulated IDB on its 40th anniversary and for its significant achievements and contributions to the development process of its 56 member countries, all of which are also World Bank member countries. He praised IDB's efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan in partnership with the US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The two chiefs agreed to further enhance their cooperation in education and knowledge-sharing.

Dr. Kim’s visit aimed to give a new impetus to the long-standing IDB-World Bank partnership amid challenging times across the region. Together, IDB and the World Bank have co-financed over 70 projects in 26 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East for a total value in excess of $7 billion. Recent joint activities include a power project in Egypt, a highway project in Iraq and, more recently, Jordan's Queen Alia airport expansion project.