Jeddah, KSA, 10.11.2015 - The 308th meeting of the Members of the Board of Executive Directors (BED) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has approved US $593.5 million of new financing for development projects in Kazakhstan, Gabon, Benin, Turkey. The BED approved the financing of these projects at the IDB headquarters in Jeddah.
A total of US $ 478,000 was also approved in grants from the IDB Waqf Fund for three educational and vocational projects. The three projects will benefit Muslim communities in three non-member countries, namely, France, Rwanda and Singapore.
The Board also took note a technical assistance grant of US $270,000 as approved by IDB President for financing the feasibility study for phase II of Lipatko-Gourma regional livestock development project, which includes Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The approved new financing are for the following projects: US $249.5 million for contribution to the rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage project in Kazakhstan aimed at enhancing agriculture and reducing the import of food stuff; US $210.4 million for contribution to two major projects in Gabon (US $109.2 million for support to the primary healthcare services, and US $93.2 million to support educational development); and US $73.8 million for upgrading the Beterou-Tchaourou-Nigeria border
road project in Benin;
Other projects approved include US $59 million as extra financing for the electric locomotive project (2TU-0148) project in Turkey, which brings the total financing for this project to a total of US $278.9 million.
The BED meeting also discussed reports on IDB’s work plan for the next three years (2016 – 2018), the proposed budget for the new fiscal year 2016, as well as a report on resource mobilization plan and Sukuk issuance strategy for 2016.