$592m IDB fund injection for key projects

The board of executive directors of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) gave approval to finance 592.2 million worth of new projects, at the end of its 315th session held in Jeddah on Monday.
The new funds include $105 million financing to support the Al-Fadhili gas processing project, which falls under the National Transformation Plan (NTP 2020) and Saudi Vision 2030. 
These funds will be offered to a new company that will be set up soon as a joint venture including Saudi Aramco and Saudi Electricity Company.  The Al-Fadhili project, which will produce both power and steam, aims to boost Saudi gas production capacity to more than 17 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2020. While creating new job opportunities, it makes way for the best use of gas resources.
Development projects in different fields such as railways, energy, education, roads and health sector in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Niger, Tajikistan and Egypt are also receiving funds.
The council approved other important projects by allocating $338.5 million for financing 10 high-speed railways as part of the expansion and renovation of the railways network in Turkey. 
The bank has also provided $74 million for building part of the 95-km Kabul ring road in Afghanistan. 
Another fund, estimated at $443 million, was approved to help support a bilingual (Arabic and French) education project in Niger. 
The board also agreed to fund $20 million for a road in Tajikistan and $10 million to fight bird flu in Egypt, after the bank had adopted the same $10 million for the same project in 2008, bringing up the bank’s contribution to $20 million.  The board of executive directors also approved four grants from the bank’s endowment fund to help the Muslim communities in the non-member states, with offers for funding educational projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Sri Lanka. 
The bank’s president briefed the board of executive directors of his agreement to grant technical assistance for two projects. 
The first grant of $278,000 in the form of aid was paid as a contribution to the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties participating in the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12) held in Marrakech, Morocco.
 The second grant of $ 294,000 was offered to finance the capacity building of 15 West African countries in the field of epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases.

Source: Arab News