The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), owned by states including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, is looking to work with Qatari institutions to invest in the agricultural sector, its vice president has said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the IDB Introduction Day in Doha on Tuesday, Dr Abdul Aziz Al Hinai said IDB member countries represented excellent investment opportunities for Gulf countries with strong institutional and legislative structures.
“The IDB member-countries are spread from Africa to Asia and even Latin America. Many of them have plenty of resources, either water or fertile land, and IDB’s role is to be an honest broker between investors from Qatar and other Gulf countries and those who have the natural resources,” he said, according to Qatari daily The Peninsula.
According to the newspaper, Al Hinai added that many developing countries that are members of the IDB will benefit from such initiatives, whether in terms of increasing their exports, earning foreign exchange, or adding value to their agricultural products by manufacturing these products and making them available to international markets.
“This would generate jobs; improve the economies of these member-countries,” he said. “It is a win-win situation for both — those who have the capital and those who have the natural resources.”
According to the newspaper, the IDB has on average in the last three years provided financing in excess of $6bn per annum. The majority of this has gone into infrastructure, including roads, power plants, hospitals and schools as well as industries through the group’s affiliates.
In the annual financing facilities that IDB provides, agriculture accounts for only seven percent of the total. However, the paper said that the bank intends to raise this to 15 percent.
IDB main shareholders from the GCC include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, besides Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Libya. Its 56 member countries include large swathes of Africa and Asia, as well as other Middle East nations.
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