JEDDAH, 6 June 2008 — Albania and Comoro Islands have signed agreements of accession to become members of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB).
This was revealed by the ICD CEO and General Manager Khaled Al-Aboodi at the 8th General Assembly meeting on Wednesday which was held in conjunction with the 33rd meeting of the IDB Board of Governors in Jeddah earlier this week. The meeting was chaired by Sheikh Ahmed ibn Mohammed Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s finance minister and chairman of IDB’s board of governors. The agreements were signed by IDB President Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali and representatives of the two countries.
Al-Aboodi told Arab News that ICD’s mandate is to support economic development of its member countries by providing finance to private sector projects in accordance with principles of Shariah thus promoting private sector development. ICD also provides advice to governments and private organizations to encourage the establishment, expansion and modernization of private enterprises. Projects financed by ICD are selected on the basis of their contribution to economic development factors such as creation of employment opportunities and contribution to exports.
ICD also accepts co-financiers for its projects and provides advice to governments and private sector groups on policies to encourage the establishment, expansion and modernization of private enterprises, development of capital markets, best management practices and enhance the role of market economy. ICD operates to complement the activities of IDB in member countries and also that of national financial institutions, he added.
During the session, the ICD’s general assembly appointed Bakr Abu Al-Khair (Deloitte and Touche) as external auditors of ICD for the financial year 1430H (2009) and authorized the chairman of the board of directors to sign the contract with them.
It also elected the representative of the Republic of Turkmenistan as the chairman of the general assembly and he will hold this office until the election of a chairman of the next general assembly meeting.
Al-Aboodi also commended the group’s $1.5 billion food initiative to boost agricultural production and achieve food security. “The initiative will contribute to solving food shortage in member countries. It will also help alleviate the suffering of people in these countries as a result of increasing prices of essential commodities,” he added.
