The minister of economic affairs and finance has called on the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to accelerate the project approval process.
In a meeting with Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the IDB president, on the sidelines of the annual World Bank meeting held in Washington DC on October 10-12, Ali Tayebnia also appreciated IDB’s support, calling for more intensified cooperation between the Islamic bank and the Iranian private sector.
The two officials also agreed that a group of IDB executives travel to Iran to investigate the status of the latest projects run in the country by the bank’s financial support.
The IDB, a multilateral development financing institution located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is one of the specialized organs of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It was founded in 1973 and began its activities on October 1975.
The Bank extends loans to its member countries for the financing of infrastructural and agricultural projects such as roads, canals, dams, schools, hospitals, housing and rural development in public and private sectors. Such loans, in conformity with Sharia (Islamic law), are interest-free and the Bank recovers its administrative expenses by levying a service fee.
Favorable Investment Environment
Top government officials and a number of investors taking part in the event praised Iran’s market as a favorable business environment, Tayebnia told IRIB reporter in New York.
Despite unfair sanctions against Iran, said Tayebnia, “we have been able to bring major economic challenges under control,” pointing out to the significant reduction of the inflation rate, as well as achieving positive economic growth after two successive years of negative growth rate.
“Fortunately, the era has passed when sanctions were used as a weapon against countries, to impose certain political views on them,” an act that only results in further dissemination of recession, poverty, and frustration in the world, as Tayebnia put it.
