ALGIERS, 22 October — Finance ministers from 53 Muslim countries will meet in the Algerian capital tomorrow to discuss practical measures to strengthen cooperation in light of unfolding world developments and the plans by some to join the World Trade Organization.
The ministers, attending the annual conference of the Islamic Development Bank in their capacity as members of the IDB Board of Governors, will also discuss raising the bank’s capital to $20 billion from the present $9 billion
Bank officials said the capital increase is meant to enable the bank meet its growing commitments toward Muslim states, especially the least developed countries of Africa.
In a preparatory meeting yesterday chaired by IDB President Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, the bank’s board of executive directors approved $50 million as assistance to Afghanistan. Of this, $5 million will be used to provide urgent supplies to refugees and the remaining money to be used later for rehabilitation purposes.
The board will also approve financial assistance to Muslim minorities and communities in non-Muslim states to help finance education, health, technical training and other projects.
The bank’s annual report detailing the economic performance of its member states as well as that of the world economy said the output growth of Muslim countries as a group during the year 2000-2001 accelerated to 5.4 percent, as compared to 2.1 percent the previous year. The real GDP of the least developed member states during 2000 remained stable at above five percent.
The report however cautioned that given the prospects for a slowdown in global economic activity (IMF projections indicate a 9.3 percent drop in 2002 compared to 3.2 percent in 2001), Muslim countries are expected to experience a major decline in their output growth rate from the 5.4 percent to 3.8 percent in 2001.
“In comparison with the developing countries, the projected 1.7 percentage points declaration in real GDP growth of IDB countries during 2001 is mainly related to the current difficulties in some of the major economies among the IDB member states,” the report said.
With the growth of world trade expected to sharply decline from 12.4 percent in 2000 to 6.7 percent in 2002, IDB member countries will see their trade steadily decline to 7.7 percent in 2001 and 5.3 percent in 2002.
The report said external debt of members stood at $538.8 billion in 2000, compared to $544.3 billion the previous year.
The total debt of the least developed states amounted to $41.2 billion compared to $42.1 billion during the same period.
The report underlined the challenges facing Muslim countries as a result of globalization and trade liberalization, saying these challenges represent an onerous task and require undertaking comprehensive internal reforms as well as observing the discipline of the market economy.
In broad terms, the challenges facing Muslim countries emanate from two sources: The current economic situation of these countries in the context of unprecedented economic and social transformation, and international policy developments in the world economy that control member countries regardless of the level of their economic development.
