UAE participates in IDB meet in Jakarta

Jakarta copy

 

Abu Dhabi / WAM

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs participated in the 41st Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Board of Governors,
which officially started in Jakarta
Indonesia.
The meeting witnessed the participation of more than 57 countries, along with IDB board of governors from finance and economic ministries, general managers of Arabic Islamic financial institutions, representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as well as financial and economic experts.
The UAE delegation included Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Assistant Under-Secretary of International Financial Relation at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and a numbers of heads of departments and other officials at the Ministry.
Obaid Humaid Al Tayer in his speech stressed the geopolitical challenges and changes and their impact on the overall development. He also addressed other challenges witnessed by state members such as the fluctuation in commodity prices and lower growth rates which require assessment by IDB member states, specifically in terms of the impact of these changes.
He said: “IDB Group is committed to provide innovative programmes to overcome challenges faced by Muslim countries and benefit from member states’ expertise in this respective field. The institutions under IDB’s umbrella should work to raise their financial resources, develop financial and funding tools, and monitor reforms implementing within the ten years strategy framework, to ensure meeting the needs of the people, raise standards of living, and achieve integration between development goals and requirements.”
Al Tayer stressed the importance of IDB Group’s achievements in expanding funding activities and growth of its operations, which increased to reach US$12.1 million, representing an increase by 13% compared to last year.
He concluded his speech by highlighting the UAE’s commitment to strengthen its partnership strategies with IDB Group and the institutions under its umbrella to support member states’ development.
Arab, African and Asian representatives from IDB member states discussed in the opening session, a number of topics including economic development within the region, as well as the Bank’s role and contributions in this field.
During the meeting, Bandar Hajjar, former minister of Haj of Saudi Arabia, was proposed as the new president of IDB, replacing Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali, who has been serving as the president of IDB since 1995.
The meeting also discussed the progress in identifying details of IDB’s ten years strategy, where the IDB Group’s member institutions started implementing the ten years strategy through its plans and short and medium term budgets.
The first and second IDB Group workshops discussed a number of topics, particularly the 41st IDB annual report, the approval of annual audited accounts for IDB and Endowment Fund in 1436H (2014-2015), selecting the external auditors for IBD, Waqf Fund and Awqaf properties investment fund as well as Waqf international organisations. A percentage of IDB’s net income will be allocated for technical assistance operations and scholarship programmes for bright student in member countries, and Islamic financial services industry for 1436H (2014-2015).
The meeting addressed number of elements including decisions and procedures related to IDB Group’ member institutions.
The first day of IDB meetings was concluded with a special dinner from the Government of Indonesia, during which winners were presented with the IDB prize for Women’s Contribution to Development as well as Science and Technology.
The UAE is keen to participate in the Annual Meetings of IDB Board of Governors meetings as it offers a platform to discuss financial and economic plans and develop future strategies in order to achieve sustainable economic development, as well as reduce poverty and unemployment in all IDB member countries and the Islamic world. The UAE is considered the fourth biggest contributor in the bank’s capital with a rate of 7.54%, where UAE hosts multiple IDB Group headquarters and office branches including ICIEC, IFC and International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Arbitration, IICRA.

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