Islamic bank's meeting sees signing of agreements worth $5.4B

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group saw the signing of 77 financing agreements worth $5.4 billion for 24 member countries during its annual meeting in the Saudi port city Jeddah, its chairman said on Saturday.

The four-day event, starting on Wednesday, hosted dozens of agreements, panels, summits, and business-to-business meetings with the high-level participation of its member countries.

The agreements aim to develop or cover operations and projects in various sectors such as health, agriculture, food security, transport, energy, small- and-mediums-sized enterprises, education, and humanitarian relief, Muhammed Al-Jasser told the event's closing news conference.

Seven different agreements were signed on Friday to improve Afghanistan’s health, childcare, education, water, sanitation, and food security infrastructure, he said.

"We explored member countries and the partners in the last four days for a number of developmental issues, and we deliberated on very important issues related to the future of the IsDB group," he stressed.

He added that the bank’s Board of Governors took a number of important decision to allow the bank to pave the way for more success.

"The governors discussed the influence on the impact of economic crisis on our member countries," he said. "They gave direction and important proposals to the IsDB group to utilize partnerships to fend off crises and work on innovative new mechanisms."

The board also discussed ways to maximize ordinary as well as concessional financing utilizing the increasing liquidity of Islamic finance, he said.