Jeddah- 28 February 211: The Islamic Development Bank Board of Executive Directors, during its meeting today, stressed its support for the efforts being undertaken through the IDB programs aimed at combating unemployment and providing employment opportunities for youth through the establishment of small and medium projects in a number of Arab countries that have recently experienced change.
Within this framework, the IDB Board decided to allocate an amount of US$ (250) million to enable those countries to support investments aimed at alleviating poverty, and creating new employment opportunities for youth.
This assistance will enhance building institutional capacity of those countries either by supporting training programs that meets labor market needs, or by supporting Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), vocational training, and lines of financing for small and medium enterprises. The Board went further to stress on the importance of following up on the new developments to decide what to be done in order to enhance the role of these institutions.
This assistance is to be added to the 2011 IDB ordinary operations programmed for those affected countries.