Under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ Patronage, IsDB Group Starts Annual Meetings

Under the patronage of the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group launched in Jeddah on Thursday its annual meetings for 2023 under the theme “Building Partnerships — Crisis Prevention,” in the presence of Prince Turki bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies; Minister of Finance Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan; Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha; Minister of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Benin and Chairman of the Board of Governors of IsDB Group Romuald Wadagni; ministers of 57 member states of IsDB Group; senior government officials; heads of international organizations, and representatives from the private sector.

 At the opening ceremony, the royal anthem was played, and then the audience watched a show narrating the march of IsDB through five decades and the extent of its support for its member countries.

 In a speech delivered at the high-profile official event, Wadagni, the Chairman of the IsDB Board of Governors, confirmed the IsDB’s mobilization of the necessary resources to address food security worth over 10 billion, along with its commitment to the climate crisis with no less than 24 billion by 2030, stressing the bank’s endeavor to build partnerships to bring development confidence to the member states, promote long-term sustainable growth in member states, diversify the ability to withstand challenges, adopt effective and efficient strategic approaches, launch comprehensive and sustainable structural reforms, and provide intelligent investment that leads to resilience and reduces climate impacts.

 He explained that this meeting is taking place against the backdrop of unprecedented inflation, tight monetary policies, a slowdown in the global economy, supply-chain disruptions, and geopolitical events threatening food security, livelihoods, and development gains achieved so far. He noted that the coronavirus (Covid-19) had pushed many member states to the brink of poverty and left them in precarious living conditions, as high prices for oil, fertilizers, and foodstuffs have disrupted the global supply chains and generally increased costs worldwide, disproportionately affecting the livelihoods of the poorest segments of the international community.

 Against this background, Wadagni also stated that the IsDB Group, as the leading institution for financing development in the OIC member states, assumes increasing importance in light of the role it can play in achieving sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth and in facing global challenges, including high energy prices, food insecurity, and climate change. He hailed the meeting as a very favorable opportunity to assess the recent performance of the member states’ economies, pointing out that the economies of the OIC member states continued to recover, posting a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $8.5 trillion in 2021, up from $7.2 trillion the previous year. Meanwhile, the average per capita GDP increased from $3,874 in 2020 to $4,582 last year.

 Next, Minister of Finance Al-Jadaan delivered a speech during which he conveyed the greetings and welcome of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and HRH the Crown Prince to the attendees of the annual IsDB meetings, which the Kingdom hosts under the generous patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

 He affirmed the Kingdom’s keenness to support development and humanitarian work globally and regionally, and support Islamic development institutions, most notably the IsDB Group. He said this year’s meeting comes in light of successive challenges and multiple opportunities, noting it is wise to strengthen partnerships and cooperation to address challenges, seize opportunities, elevate collaboration to broader horizons and push them to a higher level in a way that serves common interests and enhances development efforts to deal with the challenges of the new era.

 He further said, “In light of the successive global crises, this stage requires concerted efforts and more coordination between countries to achieve development goals, including empowering the youth of the Islamic world to participate in the development march, creating appropriate opportunities for development and creativity at all levels, and creating an environment that stimulates creativity. We must join hands and strengthen partnerships to achieve cooperation. We strive confidently to create this constructive environment to see our children lead pioneering actions to advance development towards a decent life and a sustainable economy.”

 Al-Jadaan commended the Kingdom’s consistent launching of many international and regional initiatives aimed at facing development challenges, including the Kingdom’s leadership of many global initiatives at the level of the Group of Twenty (G20) member states, the GCC member states, the Arab Coordination Group, and regional and international institutions that aim to support economic recovery and face development challenges, including challenges related to enhancing food security and addressing debts of countries in need.

 At the conclusion of his speech, the Minister of Finance announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would host the celebration of the golden jubilee on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the IsDB, which will be held next year in the city of Riyadh. He expressed his hopes for the elevation of strategic partnership relations to broader horizons and the drive for cooperation among countries towards a higher level of progress that serves common interests.

 Then, Dr. Mohammed Al-Jasser, the president of IsDB Group and chairman of the AAA-rated multilateral institution voiced his thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for his generous patronage of the annual meetings of the IsDB Group, and to HRH the Crown Prince for the welcome and great hospitality accorded to all participants, and for all the facilities provided to the bank to enable it to hold these annual meetings, explaining that the Kingdom, over the past five decades, has supported the IsDB steadfastly. It has embraced it since its inception, citing the Kingdom’s adoption of establishing the bank. It was the most prominent country of its founder in 1975, which embodies its pioneering role in developing the Islamic economy.

 Dr. Al-Jasser also pointed out that the bank faced many challenges in 2023 due to external and internal circumstances because the worsening global crises during the past two years had a significant impact that led to a noticeable decrease in global trade volume and the disruption of many global supply chains.

 He further said, “Also, the international policy towards tightening monetary policy to combat inflation has made borrowing from traditional financial markets prohibitively expensive for member countries. Responding to food security with a value of more than 10 billion dollars over the next three years, in addition to contributing to climate finance with an amount of no less than 13 billion dollars until 2030, reviewing some of the early achievements made by the Bank during 2023, according to the harmonization strategy approved by the governors in the recent annual meetings held in Egypt, and since then the Bank has been fully committed to preparing for the successful implementation of this strategy.”