JEDDAH: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank on Thursday agreed to increase the areas of cooperation with special focus on poverty alleviation and creation of jobs. The joint press conference was addressed by IDB President Ahmad Mohammad Ali and Juan José Daboub, managing director of the World Bank.
Talking to reporters at the IDB headquarters, Daboub said the two global organizations hope to learn from each other’s experiences to the benefit of world’s poor.
The visiting dignitary also briefed newsmen on the outcome of the meeting he held with Mohammad Ali and other IDB officials earlier in the day. He said they discussed ways of implementing the agreements that the two organizations have signed in the field of fighting poverty, food security, energy, infrastructure, water and climate change.
He also talked of the World Bank’s initiatives on the Arab world and IDB’s role in supporting these initiatives. Welcoming the guest, Mohammad Ali said he specially discussed with Daboub the ways of exchanging expertise, information and manpower to achieve the goals of the two organizations.
Echoing Mohammad Ali’s sentiments, Daboub, who is responsible for World Bank’s operations in 74 countries including the Middle East and North Africa, said the World Bank wanted to benefit from IDB’s expertise on Islamic finance.
“During the last 18 months of global economic crisis, we have cooperated well. This motivates us to work more closely with each others,” he said.
He said there are one billion people in the world whose daily income was between one dollar and quarter of a dollar. This makes essential to mobilize all the available resources to confront this challenge and provide basic services such as water, health and education, he added.
Among the topics discussed in Thursday’s meeting was the issue of conflict-hit areas of the Arab world like the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen. Daboub, a former finance minister of El Salvador whose forefathers had emigrated from Palestine, focused on the sufferings of Palestinians. He said he had visited Gaza recently and seen the large-scale destructions caused by Israeli bombings earlier this year. Renewing his pledge of support to the Palestinians, he said the World Bank is the strongest partner of Palestinian reconstruction.
“Though there are constraints, we are working hard to overcome these constraints and do our best to alleviate the sufferings of Palestinians,” he added.
Before arriving in Jeddah, Daboub met several government officials in Riyadh. He is currently touring the Middle East region. Last week he visited Bahrain and Egypt.
