IDB member states in big shift, Babacan says

KHARTOUM - Anatolia News Agency

Deputy PM Ali Babacan (L) meets Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir in Khartoum. AA photo

Some members of the Islamic Development Bank have implemented radical reforms and transformed their institutions, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday at the 37th annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) group in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

“Some member countries of the Islamic Development Bank have gone through radical reforms.

Institutions have been transformed. We have taken important steps in democracy, transparency, stability and prosperity,” he said in his speech at the event.

He said IDB member states had been exerting efforts to eliminate the effects of the worst global economic crisis since World War II in line with the decisions made during last year’s meeting in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, where the bank’s headquarters are located.

The bank is an international financial institution established in December 1973 with 56 shareholding member states. Turkey is among the major shareholders.

South Sudan conflict

Following the meeting, Babacan told reporters the border clash between Sudan and South Sudan was high on the agenda of his meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Babacan said he was concerned about the ongoing conflict, and that Sudan was going through hard economic times as South Sudan halted oil pipeline exports, causing a shortage of foreign exchange in particular.

He said the recurrence of problems like those of the pre-partition period after hopes that painful era had ended caused anxiety.

South Sudan shut down its crude production over an oil payments row with Sudan last month. South Sudan split from Sudan in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war.

Babacan also said he discussed with the Sudanese president ways to increase trade between Turkey and Sudan. Sudan shows good potential for businesses to invest in the east African country’s agriculture, food and husbandry industries as well as infrastructure.