OFID Director-General meets Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister

OFID Director-General Mr Al-Herbish (right) greets HE Jose Antonio Meade, Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (far left). Other OFID delegation members are Mr Mauro Hoyer (center, left), Director, Department of Information, and Mr Fuad Albassam, Assistant Director-General, Department of Operations.

April 15, Vienna, Austria. The Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish, has met with HE José Antonio Meade, Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss enhanced cooperation between OFID and Mexico as co-financing partners in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the first High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), which is taking place in Mexico City. Also present was Mr Juan Manuel Valle Pereña, Head of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development.

Mr Al-Herbish is representing fellow members of the Coordination Group, a policy and operational alliance among a number of Arab national and regional development funds, the Islamic Development Bank and OFID, as well as their subsidiaries and special programs.

In his talks with Mr Meade, Mr Al-Herbish outlined OFID’s longstanding ties with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and, in particular, the institution’s co-financing activities with the Government of Mexico. Responding, the Minister expressed the interest of his government to explore future common initiatives both with OFID and other institutions of the Group.

During the meeting, Mr Al-Herbish presented Mr Meade with a copy of the Coordination Group’s CREST (Commitment, Responsiveness, Effectiveness, Sustainability, Transparency) Report, which highlights the main objectives and achievements of the Group.

To date, OFID has funded development operations in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.