Development model for Muslim world needs change: Bank

By Gokhan Ergocun

TUNIS, Tunisia

The development model of the Muslim world, which heavily relies on state institutions must be changed, the president of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) said Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the bank's annual meeting in the Tunisian capital Tunis, Bandar Hajjar said: "The IDB is the institution which will change this situation."

He added that there was strong demand by member states for support from IDP.

The IDB governors held meetings with high-level officials about development challenges and reconstructed the bank's structure to fulfil this demand, he said.

The bank is trying to bring together private and public sectors and other stakeholders to accelerate development in member states.

"Member countries need $120 billion only for the energy sector, but the bank could only cater to eight percent of these needs," he said, adding that $3 trillion are required to address the gap in infrastructure.

“But we are encouraging the involvement of the private sector to work together in addressing our development challenges."

Hajjar said member states have a population of 1.6 billion, 60 percent of them youth, and their needs are increasing every day.

The bank has also established a fund to carry out a feasibility study for member countries in order to help them finance their needs.

“We will come up with a crowdsourcing platform. We are bringing SMEs, and linking them with investors,” he said.

Tunisian Prime Minister Yousef Chahed said: "There is no other option but to work in a way that addresses the needs of our people in the member countries."

Chahed said the involvement of the private sector in development was vital.

“For this reason, we established a law on promoting public and private partnership in Tunisia."

Tunisia has received $3.2 billion from IDB Group so far, the prime minister added.

Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen, the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said: "We need to come up with a strategy to support Islamic Solidarity Fund Development, which is one of the initiatives of the OIC."

Representatives of 57 member states, senior government officials and ministers of finance, economy, planning and international development are attending the five-day meeting that kicked off on Sunday in Tunis. After side events in the first three days, the annual meeting started on Wednesday.