ALMATY, 3 September 2003 — The annual meeting of the 55-member Islamic Development Bank (IDB) opened in Kazakhstan yesterday in what IDB President Ahmad Muhammad Ali hailed as a symbol of the bank’s commitment to the Central Asian states.
The meeting in Kazakhstan’s commercial center Almaty admitted neighboring Uzbekistan as the last of the five Central Asian republics to join the IDB, which aims to boost development in accordance with Islamic law.
“This meeting ... underlines the importance for the bank of improving the social and economic situation in this region,” Muhammad Ali told the meeting.
Islam is seen in relatively pragmatic terms among most of its adherents in the five Central Asian republics — Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan has so far received maximum aid from the IDB and yesterday the bank announced a further allocation of $32 million over three years for upgrading water and postal systems and establishing a “legal and humanitarian” university.
“We highly value the support received from the Islamic Development Bank in reforming and developing the economy of Kazakhstan,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
Nazarbayev’s attempts to balance the various influences on his vast country include the hosting of a congress of world religions on Sept. 23-24.
Loans by the IDB totaled some $2.9 billion in the Islamic year ending March 4, 2003, the IDB’s chairman of governors Adilbek Dzhaksybekov said.
