Islamic Development Bank to help crisis-hit countries - IDB president

BAKU, June 23 (Itar-Tass) -- The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) sees
its basic goal in rendering assistance to countries that have been most
severely hit by the global financial crisis and recession, the bank's
president Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani said on Wednesday at an opening
session of the 35th meeting of the bank's board of governors.
In 2009, he said, the Islamic Development Bank allocated 7.25 billion
U.S. dollars in loans to Islamic countries, which was four times as much
as in 2008. In his words, financial support also came from the Islamic
Solidarity Fund. "We demonstrated our capacity to withstand the financial
crisis having retained the highest credit rating AAA," he said.
Nonetheless, the financial crisis has had a negative effect on the
economies of a number of Islamic countries, he admitted and called for
permanent efforts to overcome these. In his words, the current situation
urges to re-direct funds to finance vital projects, such as the ones in
the sphere of infrastructure. He also said it was necessary to set up
investment banks that would be involved in implementing projects aimed at
overcoming the economic crisis, and would prevent future potential threats.
The current meeting of the IDB board of governors is being attended by
finance and economics ministers from 56 IDB member countries, and by
representatives from a number of international financial organizations and
the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Azerbaijan joined the Islamic Development Bank in 1992, and ever since
it has received 528 million U.S. dollars from the bank to finance various
projects. Azerbaijan and the IDB reached an agreement on a three-year
program covering 11 projects in various spheres to the total amount of 450
million U.S. dollars.
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