24 October 2007

Jeddah: The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB)Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has initiated a $10-billion fund to fight poverty in the Islamic world.

Saudi Arabia donated $1 billion for the fund while Kuwait donated $300 million, said IDBIDB in a press release yesterday. The bank noted that it marked the launching of the new fund on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF meeting in Washington last Sunday.

"The anti-poverty fund has so far got pledges from 29 countries of the IDBIDB to take part in it," IDBIDB president Dr Ahmad Mohammad Ali said.

He said 29 IDBIDB Islamic countries members have till now pledged to donate $2.6 billion.

Mobilisation

"We are exerting all our efforts and mobilising additional potentialities for the fund," the IDBIDB chief said. He underlined that profits that would be generated from the fund's investments would be used for fighting poverty in the Islamic world.

He expressed confidence that the fund would assist Islamic countries to meet the objectives of the new millennium in regard to fighting poverty, terrorism and unemployment as announced by the United Nations.

IDBIDB is a developmental banking corporation with 56 members from four continents.

Since its establishment in 1975, the bank has allocated $50 billion for needy member states.

By Mariam Al Hakeem

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