Arabs among biggest donors: Prince Talal

DUBAI - Arab donors constituted one of the world's largest donor groups, and to this day consistently outshine the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in terms of official development assistance as a percentage of GNP, noted Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, President of the Arab Gulf Fund for the United Nations Development Institutions (AGFUND), delivering the keynote address at the symposium on Arab Development Aid, being held as part of Dubai 2003.

By Zaigham Ali Mirza

Published: Sun 21 Sep 2003, 12:32 PM

Last updated: Wed 1 Apr 2015, 11:49 PM

Elaborating, Prince Talal said, "at 0.85 per cent (of their GNPs) their contribution surpasses by far the 0.3 per cent provided by the Western donors, and tops even the internationally accepted target of 0.7 per cent."

He pointed out that the efforts were made at a time when the Arab donor countries were facing economic difficulties. Detailing the history of the Arab efforts, Prince Talal said that the distinguished history of Arab aid goes back to the programmes initiated almost half a century ago by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the early 1960s.

Then, and now, the impetus driving Arab donors was a sincere desire to assist, to whatever extent possible, the development efforts of poor countries, Prince Talal said.

He emphasised the fact that unlike other bilateral aids, the boundaries of the Arab aid go beyond its donors' immediate neighbours, even to far flung countries like Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Grenada and Belize - countries that have very little in common with them in terms of religion, culture and politics. He pointed out that Arab aid, extended through multilateral channels, is even wider in reach and covers some 130 developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Carribean, and Eastern Europe. Prince Talal said: "The combined financial strength of the member institutions of the coordination group is considerable. Their equity base including paid-in capital and reserves are around $57 billion of which $33 billion are reserves. As of today the members of the group have extended $76 billion through more than 4500 financing operations benefiting over 130 countries.

Prince Talal noted that Arab Aid is characterised as being largely concessional having grant element ranging from 25 to 75 per cent and the associated procurement is not tied. It is responsive to the quick disbursing need of the beneficiary countries.

Abdulatif Y. Al-Hamad, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Governors, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Kuwait was the moderator of the symposium, while Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning Jamaica, Moeen Qureshi, former prime minister of Pakistan, and Bruno Amoussou, Minister of State for Planning, Prospective and Development, Benin were on the panel.