Development model should change: Islamic Development Bank
TUNIS – Anadolu Agency
The development model of the Muslim world, which currently heavily relies on state institutions, must be changed, the president of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) said on April 4.
“The IDB is the institution which will change this situation,” Bandar Hajjar said at the opening ceremony of the bank’s annual meeting in the Tunisian capital Tunis.
He added that there was strong demand by member states for support from the IDP.
The IDB governors held meetings with high-level officials about development challenges and reconstructed the bank’s structure to fulfil this demand, Hajjar said.
$3 trillion needed for infrastructure
The bank is trying to bring together the private and public sectors and other stakeholders to accelerate development in member states.
“Member countries need $120 billion only for the energy sector, but the bank could only cater to eight percent of these needs,” he said, adding that $3 trillion is required to address the gap in infrastructure.
“But we are encouraging the involvement of the private sector to work together in addressing our development challenges,” Hajjar stressed.
He also noted that member states have a population of 1.6 billion people, 60 percent of whom are young people, and their needs are increasing every day.
The IDB has established a fund to carry out feasibility studies for member countries in order to help them finance these needs.
“We will come up with a crowdsourcing platform. We are bringing together SMEs and linking them with investors,” he said.
“There is no other option but to work in a way that addresses the needs of our people in the member countries,” Tunisian Prime Minister Yousef Chahed said at the same event.
He added that the involvement of the private sector in development is vital.
“For this reason, we established a law on promoting public and private partnership in Tunisia,” Chahed said, noting that Tunisia has received $3.2 billion from IDB Group so far.
“We need to come up with a strategy to support Islamic Solidarity Fund Development, which is one of the initiatives of the OIC,” said Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary general Yousef bin Ahmed al-Othaimeen.
