19/04/2015 00:34 AST
Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) on Friday signed an Enhanced Partnership Framework to support countries in the Arab region in developing their economies and financial markets.
This initiative will include collaboration on joint strategies for promoting the development of financial markets and trade among countries, supporting economic stabilisation and accelerating broad-based and inclusive economic growth and job creation in the Arab region.
"The World Bank (WB) and the Arab Monetary Fund have collaborated on a number of initiatives over the years and given fruitful co-operation, and we are here to solidify and strengthen this partnership further," said Hafez Ghanem, vice president for the Middle East and North Africa region of the World Bank.
"This new partnership framework brings together the elements of our joint engagement with the AMF under one umbrella in a more structured, ambitious and comprehensive manner. It also brings the WB and International Finance Corporation (IFC), our private sector arm, together as one World Bank Group," he added.
The framework was signed by Hafez Ghanem, vice president, MENA,, Dr. Abdulrahman Al Hamidy, director general chairman of the board of the AMF, and Mouayed Makhlouf, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa of the IFC.
Co-operation under this MoU will enable each institution to leverage its respective core competencies and comparative advantages as well as consolidate, strengthen and broaden the ongoing collaboration.
"The AMF's experience in assisting financial sector development in the region, and in supporting capacity development efforts in our member countries, has been among our top priorities," said Dr Al Hamidy adding, "We look forward to pursuing and intensifying this effort to better tackle the needs in the region."
The specific support by the AMF and WBG to Arab countries will focus on technical assistance and awareness raising in three areas: financial sector infrastructure including payment systems, credit information sharing systems and collateral registries; financial channels and vehicles such as bond market development, early stage innovation, financing for start-ups, Islamic finance, housing finance and SME stock exchanges; and financial sector inclusion and access, including on providing access to finance by micro enterprises, SMEs, firms, households and individuals, and developing mobile banking and mobile money.
The AMF and IFC have in the past few years helped to establish more enabling business and regulatory environments for private credit bureaus in these countries.
"The AMF is a long-term partner of IFC in pursuing the private sector development agenda across the Arab region," said Makhlouf.
"Through this MoU we will continue to partner and provide assistance for the development of the regional financial sector, especially in the areas of access to finance for small businesses, Islamic finance, and housing finance."
This Enhanced Partnership Framework will also provide training opportunities and high-level conferences on key topics of relevance to the region in the financial arena.
Times of Oman
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