President discusses financing solar energy, other areas with head of Islamic Bank

President Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Sunday morning met virtually with President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Dr Bandar Hajjar and the two discussed a number of important issues.

“The issues discussed included financing solar energy, agriculture, infrastructure, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and containing the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” noted a brief statement from the Office of the President.

Guyana and the IsDB share a longstanding relationship. In April 2018, the then Finance Minister Winston Jordan had revealed that Guyana was ready access US$900 million from the IsDB over the next three years.

The financing “will be directed to key development areas, including economic infrastructure, rural development, human development and trade and competitiveness,” Jordan said in an address at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Tunisia.

Guyana became a full member of the IsDB in 2017 and the 2018-2020 work programme was agreed to when a mission from the Bank visited Guyana in December 2017.