Guyana shaping ties with Islamic Development Bank
KEY executives of the Islamic Development Bank are on their first visit to Guyana and the government here expects to shape a financing partnership by the time discussions are over in the next few days.“We want to be offering the full package of development assistance, including finance, but not exclusively financing,” said Mr Sayed Aqa, Vice President of the Bank. He is leading a delegation for talks with the government and the private sector.
“The Bank’s objectives and priorities coincide with ours and our development agenda, so we are excited in trying to develop this partnership agenda as quickly as possible so we could get projects to excite the bank and have them financed,” Winston Jordan, the Finance Minister said Wednesday evening.
Guyana acceded to membership of the Islamic Development Bank in March this year. It was seen as a signal development as the country attempted to join the Bank ever since it became a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1998, as this is a prerequisite to joining the Bank.
Speaking ahead of a welcome reception for the executives of the bank at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, Minister Jordan said that Guyana is excited about the partnership.
He said this was especially so since it comes at a time when access to concessionary resources is becoming more difficult and membership to the Bank will afford Guyana an alternative source of financing to highly concessional resources, including grants and interest free loans.
“We have to be excited because we are aware of what the bank does, we are aware of what the Bank has done in our neighbouring country Suriname…and we are hoping that we can have similar or greater things,” Minister Jordan stated.
The areas of intervention of the Islamic Development Bank include human development, rural development and food safety, infrastructural development, trade among member countries, as well as private sector development, research and development.
Guyana is the second country in the Americas to join the Bank, following on after Suriname.
In April this year, Suriname announced that it would benefit from a US$1.75 billion loan from the Islamic Development Bank and was first intended to be used to finance imports of social merchandise, such as basic goods and medicines and fund infrastructural and agricultural projects.
Mr Saifullah Abid, Senior Country Manager responsible for Guyana said that the country has a lot of potential, and he sees potential particularly in the agricultural sector.
He said this would be ideal because Guyana can help meet the world demand for food and agricultural industries can create jobs for Guyanese.
“We hope we can have some modest contribution to the development of Guyana, building on the lessons we have learnt in Suriname, and other member countries,” said Mr Aqa.
“We hope to link Guyana to other member countries so they can benefit from them as well, in addition to the financing,” he added.
The Bank was established in December 1973 and officially opened its doors for business on October 20, 1975, with Headquarters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It also operates through regional offices in Kazakhstan, Senegal, Malaysia and the Kingdom of Morocco.
The Bank was established with the purpose of fostering economic development and social progress in member countries and Muslim communities.
