The Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, has underlined the significance of the Group’s member countries’ accession to and implementation of the convention for promotion, protection and insurance of investments prepared by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that are related to intra-trade and investment.
At the opening ceremony of the 1st Global Islamic Investment Gateway (GIIG) Forum in Manama, Bahrain, in early March, Dr Ali shared that IDB, through its trade financing arm, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), has offered US$27 billion of financing to foreign trade (export and import) operations in addition to US$29.5 billion of financing provided by IDB itself for promotion of intra-trade prior to the establishment of the ITFC in 2008. He added that the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), IDB’s private sector development arm, has contributed more than US$3 billion of financing to nearly 300 private sector development projects while the IDB’s own total contribution from its Ordinary Capital Resources (OCRs) to support the private sector in member countries stood at US$3.5 billion
for 45 development projects.
The Chairman also mentioned that more than US$23 billion worth of investments and export credits have been insured by the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), which has contributed to the flow of investment projects and helped promote intra-trade amongst member countries.
The 1st GIIG Forum, co-organised by Bahrain’s Economic Development Council, the Islamic Development Bank and Thompson Reuters, was attended by more than a thousand businessmen and investors representing more than 700 firms and banking institutions.