The visiting minister, accompanied by UK ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sir Tom Philips, also discussed ways for coordinating efforts to assist Pakistan with overcoming the aftermath of the recent destructive flooding which engulfed vast areas of land in the country. They exchanged views on participating in the upcoming Pakistan Development Forum slated for mid-November in Islamabad with Mitchell naming Pakistan the biggest country-to-country program that his ministry is following up.

"This is my first visit to the Kingdom and I consider my meeting with the IDB as the most important and exciting one. I had an extensive and fulfilling meeting," Mitchell later told reporters. Even as the UK is engaged in private sector investment and wealth creation in poorer regions, we hope the IDB could also be involved in this," Mitchell said. The British government recently announced that it would be significantly increasing its work at international level, he said and sought close relations with the IDB in this regard. "It's our responsibility to serve the poorest regions of the world, and together with the IDB we'll be able to do much more..."

Ali and Mitchell also touched upon coordinating efforts aimed at upgrading development and alleviating poverty in IDB member countries particularly in Palestine and Yemen taking advantage of British expertise, especially in capacity building for member countries of the bank. The issue of cooperation with the IDB in sharing expertise on Islamic banking and finance with senior experts from the British Department for International Development as well as cooperation in different Islamic financial instruments also figured in the meeting.

The minister expressed his appreciation for the important role the IDB Group has played in alleviating poverty and creating new job opportunities as well as the support the bank has lent to economic development of its member nations.

"We'll be your sincere and active partner in this," Ali said and underlined the desire of the bank to cooperate with the British Ministry of International Development for the materialization of joint objectives in alleviating poverty and promoting public health as well as furthering educational efforts.

Ali stressed IDB group's desire for increasing Shariah-compliant financings to ward off the impacts of the global financial crisis in a number of the IDB Group member countries. He also referred to Grameen Bank in Bangladesh as a typical successful instance of poverty alleviation, which could be replicated in other countries.

The visiting delegation was briefed on the activities of the IDB Group and the efforts put into supporting development in IDB member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries as well as the strides the bank has taken to finance development projects and promote intra trade among its member countries.

The delegation also discussed some of the "common objectives" that the UK shares with Saudi Arabia in developing the poorest regions of the world during its meetings with Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Zainal Alireza on Saturday. It had a meeting at the Organization of the Islamic Conference as well.