JEDDAH, 31 January 2007 — The Islamic Corporation for Insurance and Export Credit (ICIEC) has increased its insured business to $900 million this year from $147 million in 2004.
“The export credit insurance industry has witnessed rapid growth during this decade,” said Abdul Rahman Taha, general manager of ICIEC at the fifth Export Credit Insurance Agencies (ECA) meeting which began here yesterday at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) headquarters.
He pointed out that ICIEC had increased its insured business in the past two years by six fold.
The two-day meeting, organized by ICIEC and inaugurated by Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president of IDB, will discuss the obstacles and challenges facing export credit insurance agencies in the Islamic world. “Despite current achievements, Taha said the industry is facing a number of important challenges (from) low capital base, low capacity, lack of awareness of credit insurance, lack of reliable credit information, lack of trained technical staff,” among others.