The Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for International Development today its 102nd Session at the fund’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, last week. Following adoption of the meeting’s agenda, the director general of the Fund, Seyyid Abdulai, reporting to the board on the fund’s activities, indicated that on a cumulative basis, and as of the end of March 2003, $5.146 billion had been approved in loans to the public sector and $3.329 billion disbursed.
These loans, which were extended for project and program financing and balance of payments support, as well as within the framework of the HIPC Initiative, number 953. All major economic and social sectors have benefited from the fund’s assistance, including agriculture, transportation, health, education, water supply and sewerage, industry, energy, etc.
The director general further indicated that a total of 41 operations had been approved under the Fund’s Private Sector Facility. As of the end of March 2003, cumulative commitments through this window totaled $190.1 million. In addition, the Fund has approved a total of 613 grants in support of various activities in the areas of technical assistance, food aid, emergency relief and research.
Cumulative grant commitments, as of the end of March 2003, amounted to $292.2 million, of which $188.5 million has been disbursed. Moreover, the fund has contributed, in grant form, substantial amounts to the resources of other international development institutions benefiting the South; these contributions total $971.8 million, most of which has been disbursed.
To date, the Fund has provided financial assistance to 110 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe. In its session, the board approved seven public sector project loans worth a total of $52.14 million.
These include $10 million for a Middlepits-Bokspits road project in Botswana, $10 million for Cambodia road improvement, $1.82 million for the second phase of North Lower Guinea Small Farmers Development project, $15 million for Lebanon in support of the Pan Arab Highway, four million dollars for Maseru Water Supply project in Lesotho, $6.62 million for an Entrepreneurship and Skills Development project in Namibia. Seychelles was granted $4.7 million for a Baie St. Anne School Construction project.
All in all the fund allocated $52.14 million. All of the above loans have a maturity of 20 years, including a grace period of five years, and carry interest at rates ranging from one percent to 1.25 percent for low-income countries Cambodia, Guinea and Lesotho, while the remaining loans to the middle-income countries bear interest rates ranging from 2.5 percent to four percent.
The projects will be co-financed with the governments of the beneficiary countries and with other donors including four OPEC aid institutions—the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and the Saudi Fund for Development. Other contributors include the Asian Development Bank and the Nigerian Trust Fund (administered by the African Development Bank).
Five grants were also approved by the Board and were directed at financing activities in the agriculture, multi-sectoral, health and education sectors. They total $2.75 million: $300,000 in support of a Foot and Mouth Disease eradication and control initiative in the Arab region; two million dollars to help rehabilitate and rebuild damaged and destroyed homes in Palestine, to be drawn from the Special Grant Account for Palestine; $150,000 to help finance the expansion a vocational training center for women in Paraguay; $200,000 to support a research project in biosaline agriculture; and
$100,000 to co-finance the extension of a surgical unit at a district hospital in Togo.
The Board also discussed the Fund’s Private Sector Facility: four new private sector investment proposals were approved; a number of pipeline proposals considered and a note on the implementation of the facility examined. Also in this session: the Board reviewed financial and budget matters; considered a draft of the Fund’s 2002 Annual Report; examined progress reports on ongoing grants and on the implementation of the HIV/AIDS Special Account; looked at a note on the status of the Fund’s participation in the HIPC Debt Initiative; and assessed public sector operations under active consideration by the Fund.
The next Governing Board Session will take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on June 11, 2003. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
