DUSHANBE, May 17, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- President Emomali Rahmon today met here with Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Tajik leader, the IDB head said that President Rahmon expressed gratitude to IsDB for support for development of Tajikistan’s health, education, energy and transport sectors.

“President Rahmon informed me of ambitious projects the Tajik Government plans to implement,” Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali stated.

According to him, the Tajik leader also informed him of disasters that hit the country in early May.  “Within the next few days, IsDB will send a working group to the disaster sites and we will provide assistance to Tajikistan in mitigating the disaster effects,” the IsDB head said.

He also added that the Islamic Development Bank was ready to provide micro loans to support enhancement of the agrarian sector and construction of roads in Tajikistan.

“IsDB is interested in implementation of the CASA 1000 project that will allow supplying electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan land we are ready to participate in this project,” Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali stated.

The Islamic Development Bank (also known as IsDB), is a multilateral development financing institution located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was founded by the first conference of Finance Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), convened 18 December 1973. The bank officially began its activities on October 20, 1975.  There are 54 shareholding member states.

The functions of the Bank are to participate in equity capital and grant loans for productive projects and enterprises besides providing financial assistance to member countries in other forms for economic and social development.  The Bank tries to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Shari’ah or Islamic jurisprudence.