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GLOBAL:
In conjunction with the 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of
Governors, the IDB held its annual symposium asserting the need to
strengthen cooperation and integration among member countries.
The
issues discussed included: trade openness to boost competitiveness,
accelerating youth education, science and technology and research to
sustain better relationship and economic interdependence among member
countries, intensifying cross-border infrastructure investment in
transportation and energy as well as fostering Islamic finance for
regional integration.
Several
recommendations were put forward at the national, regional and IDB
Group level. The major recommendations were: formulating regional
regulatory frameworks to facilitate cross-border Islamic capital
movement among IDB member countries and cross-border presence of
Islamic banks, especially in financing regional infrastructure
projects; encouraging private sector participation in cross-border
infrastructure projects; reinforcing the role of the IDB Group as a
catalyst for promoting economic cooperation and integration; and
developing a common vision on regional integration process for all
OIC-based sub-regional economic groupings to face emerging challenges.
Additionally
the recommendations also include: developing information database and
undertaking analytical work on the activities of sub-regional economic
groupings and their development impacts on individual member countries;
enhanced reforms and economic integration of member countries to become
more competitive; developing production capabilities through
specialization; and preparing an IDB Group regional cooperation and
integration strategy to consolidate various regional initiatives of the
IDB Group and thus scale up its role in fostering regional cooperation.
The
meeting further witnessed the signing of US$2.45 billion-worth of new
financing agreements with 22 member countries, with US$1.5 billion
allocated to the energy production and transmission sector. The rest
were apportioned for sectors such as communication, roads and transport,
food security, irrigation, farming and fisheries, health care, water
supply, job creation, as well as SMEs.
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