The board met here Tuesday on the sidelines of the IDB annual conference.
IDB President Ahmed Mohamed Ali said the meeting approved two projects worth $198 million in Bangladesh, a $191 million water project in Bahrain, a $95 million electricity project in Senegal and a $66 million electricity project in Syria.
“We have also agreed to give $75 million to support an Islamic bank in Turkey,” the president said. The board also approved finances for educational and training projects of Muslim communities in Brazil, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, India and Slovenia.
The five-day IDB conference was attended by more than 1,000 delegates including ministers, businessmen, bankers and economists.
It includes meetings of IDB affiliates the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI).
Speaking to Arab News after signing a financial facility agreement with Agroinvest Bank in Tajikistan, ICD CEO Khaled Al-Aboodi emphasized his organization’s plans to expand its operations.
“Now our businesses are mainly in the Middle East and North Africa region. We want to move to sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and Central Asia,” he said.
The ICD has spent more than $1.6 billion from its own resources on various projects and helped mobilize funds from other financiers for projects worth $5 billion.
Al-Aboodi also unveiled plans to set up non-banking financial institutions in sub-Saharan countries to finance projects.
“We also want to support the housing sector and establish special economic zones,” he said.
ICD has already established a SEZ in Mauritania in the fisheries sector and intends to set up another in Benin for the cotton industry.
“We also want to prepare projects to be bankable,” he said, adding that $4.5 million has been allocated for the purpose.
The conference also witnessed the signing of another agreement between ITFC and HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd., outlining their plans to work together to expand their participation in co-financing and syndicated trade finance operations, investing ITFC’s liquid funds in Shariah-compatible investments, providing related treasury products and assisting the implementation of ITFC’s trade operations.
The signing ceremony was attended by Waleed Al-Wohaib, CEO of ITFC, Razi Fakih, deputy CEO of HSBC, Mohanna Sobieh, GM Treasury of ITFC and Ayub Khan, AGM Operations and Shamzani Hussain, director of Financial Institutional Group of HSBC and Ian Rogers, head of Trade Sales Middle East and North Africa.
“This MoU is a milestone toward enhancing the cooperation between the two entities at the operational and institutional levels,” said Al-Wohaib.
He added, “HSBC is a premier global trade bank with strong trade service operations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. This helps ITFC in its mandate to promote and develop the intra-OIC trade and reach out to our LDMCs.”
