Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 08 November 2022– Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) President and Group Chairman, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, held bilateral meeting with the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud-Basso.

In the meeting, Dr. Al Jasser lauded the spirit of cooperation with EBRD, while praising the EBRD’s assistance to the IsDB in establishing a syndication function. The IsDB President further praised the EBRD for its collaboration with the Bank. “Co-financing between our institutions (including ICD) has cumulatively exceeded $1bn, covering a dozen PPP transactions in Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey, with a strong focus on the renewable energy sector” he explained. Dr. Al Jasser expressed the IsDB’s interest in scaling up cooperation and co-financing, especially to support mutual member countries' green and digital transitions.

Referring to the ongoing global challenges, the IsDB President said: “We acknowledge the adverse impact of ongoing geopolitical and trade tensions, which have dislocated global food and energy markets amidst tightening monetary policies in advanced countries to contain inflation”. He states that the fiscal constraints and elevated debt levels compound these successive external shocks in many countries, noting that the specter of another debt crisis looms over many IsDB member countries, especially low-income countries.

The IsDB President reiterates that IsDB looks forward to working together on agricultural value chains, highlighting that the IsDB Group aims to deploy $10.5bn to address food security in member countries through 2025, in addition to $20bn of past investment in this sector. “We may consider a deep dive to ramp up joint operational engagement in 2023-2024 and identify concrete co-financing opportunities, including trade finance” Dr. Al Jasser concluded.