OFID concludes high-level mission to Washington, DC: Director General signs loan agreements with five partner countries

Vienna, Austria, April 22, 2015. A delegation from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), headed by Director-General Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish, has concluded a high-level mission to Washington, DC, to attend the 2015 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as a number of other important meetings.

Highlights of the mission included the signing of public sector loan agreements, totaling US$112m, with five partner countries. The agreements were signed by Mr Al-Herbish and the respective ministers of the recipient countries:

Chad. US$18m. Kyabe-Singako Road
China. US$35m. Laibin Vocational Education
Egypt. US$27m. Expansion and Rehabilitation of Ain Shams University Specialized Hospital
Ethiopia. US$25m. Shambu-Bako Road
Nicaragua. US$7m. Rancho Rojo - La Calamidad Road

For more information about the projects, please refer to the country data on OFID’s website.

In addition, Mr Al-Herbish signed an Agreement for the Encouragement and Protection of Investment (AEPI) with Chad. This document is a pre-condition for OFID to pursue private sector investments with the country.

Also during the mission Mr Al-Herbish met with Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, World Bank Corporate Secretary and President’s Special Envoy. The meeting served as a follow-up on the high-level conference on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held at OFID headquarters in February 2015, in which Dr Mohieldin was the keynote speaker. The Director-General briefed Dr Mohieldin on the "excellent response" to this event and the ongoing preparations for the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July. Discussions also explored the possibility of future joint initiatives between OFID and the World Bank.

A meeting also took place between Mr Al-Herbish and Mr Hafez Ghanem, Vice-President of the MENA Region of the World Bank, to discuss areas of potential cooperation and review a Memorandum of Understanding the two institutions signed in October 2010. Talks also elaborated on OFID’s role in representing the Arab Coordination Group (ACG) at various international conferences, including the Global Partnership for Development Cooperation, the Arab Development Portal and the FfD.

Mr Ghanem and the Director-General then attended a meeting of the Heads of Institutions of the ACG, which reviewed the cooperation between the Group and the World Bank. Both sides agreed to scale up operations and joint co-financing. They also discussed preliminary views on the new World Bank Strategy for the MENA Region.

The OFID delegation also attended meetings of the G-24 Ministers and the Development Committee and met with Ms Amina Mohammed, Assistant Secretary-General, Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning, who gave a briefing on the ongoing negotiations on the SDGs. Mr Al-Herbish informed her that OFID's mandate was in line with both the MDGs and the SDGs, and that OFID had been instrumental in adding Energy Poverty as a “missing ninth” MDG. He added that OFID was representing the ACG in the post-2015 Development Agenda efforts.

Several bilateral meetings were also held to review the status of OFID’s cooperation with other international finance institutions and partner countries, and to identify potential private sector and trade finance transactions.