Riyadh - Mubasher: A crowd of more than 1,000 participants gathered through a webinar to celebrate the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) private sector action response to COVID-19 with a $2.3 billion package to launch three stimulus and resilient initiatives to help the OIC member countries’ economy.
The initiatives will be launched by the IsDB Group Private Sector Entities in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Economy and the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM), according to a press release on Wednesday.
The webinar was inaugurated by IsDB Group’s President, Bandar Hajjar, Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Nevin Gamea, and Undersecretary of UAE Ministry of Economy, Abdullah Ahmed Saleh.
The event hosted various entities, government officials, individual investors, entrepreneurs, multilateral and financial institutions, chairmen, presidents and CEOs of local and international companies, among others.
The webinar primarily addressed the challenges facing the private sector and global economy during the COVID-19 outbreak, highlighting the IsDB Group’s $2.3 billion Strategic Preparedness and Response Programme for COVID-19 under its 3Rs approach, “Respond, Restore and Restart”.
The three online initiatives are:
Digital Country Presentations: To promote and exhibit future investment and trade opportunities in OIC member countries to provide a global gateway for investors as well as government and private agencies.
Made In Series: An excellent opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to showcase their local products and projects to a pool of international audiences.
Startups Pitch Competition: An opportunity for the startups to participate in a local pitch competition, enabling the winners to present their countries in the international startups' platform.
The initiative will significantly spur foreign direct investment (FDI) growth whilst stimulating trade and investment opportunities in targeted countries.
Affected OIC economies will be supported by seeking potential partners to finance trade and infrastructure projects that will result in a rise in job creation and higher gross domestic product (GDP).
In this regard, the CEO of The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), Oussama Kaissi, said, "Now more than ever, international partners must come together in solidarity to support countries as they face this once in a generation crisis. It is essential for ICIEC to provide support in stabilising the trade ecosystem while also planning for recovery across our 47 member countries.”
According to the CEO of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), Ayman Sejiny, the $250 million emergency funding for SMEs and the private sector "would be mainly in the form of medium to long-term financing instruments to alleviate the economic burden faced by existing and new clients."
