The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) launched on Tuesday a $500 million "innovation fund" for funding scientific and technological inventions to tackle development challenges among state members.
IDB’s President Bandar Hajjar said in a statement that some of the money earmarked for the fund would be invested in food security, education, water management, clean energy and manufacturing in developing nations.
“The Islamic Development Bank understands that people living in the developing world need more than just grant funding. They need sustainable solutions to help them build their own way out of poverty. At the same time, we do need to offer access to the resources they need to realize their goals and change the world. That is why we have launched Transform,” indicated Hajjar.
“Transform will ensure our members have access to a vital flow of financing facilities to help finance innovative ideas linked to real development solutions,” he added.
Some sums will finance emerging companies, small and medium enterprises, stating that inventors, scientists and institutions can apply for funding online.
Chief scientific adviser to IDB president Hayat Sindi said the bank would like to give every scientist an opportunity to provide solutions to development challenges, indicating that the aim of the fund was to give a boost to creative minds.
Since its establishment 45 years ago, the bank has provided $11.2 billion in funds to 483 different projects in Turkey.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Hajjar said the bank is committed to the development needs of its member countries.
"In the last one year, we have introduced several initiatives that would help in building capacity of our member countries, particularly by leveraging on the opportunities offered by science and technology," he added.
As part of its plan to be closer to clients, IDB had decided to decentralize its operations.
"No institution can solve development challenges alone. That is why the annual meeting in Tunisia is focusing on partnerships for sustainable development,” Hajjar said.
The projects funded by the IDB in Turkey include: Islamic banking and finance, education, energy, health, and renewable energy.
The bank maintains an office in the Turkish capital Ankara and another in Istanbul, from where it handles projects in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina, pointed out Hajjar.
Meanwhile, the Second Generation of the Alliance to Fight Avoidable Blindness (AFAB-2) in Islamic countries was launched during the 43rd annual meeting in the Tunisian capital Tunis.
For this, IDB had created a $30 million fund that would allow 100,000 cataract surgeries to be performed and would provide glasses to a million children in Africa.
The IDB president announced that about 33 million people in Africa suffer from visual impairment while nearly “75 percent of these cases can be prevented or treated, especially those related to cataract.” He expects Turkey to be the biggest supporter.
In other news, a new report indicated that emerging manufacturing establishments in Turkey are increasing in attractiveness due to low cost, while the country remains one of the top 10 manufacturing powerhouses.
Turkey ranked 10 in a 42-country list analyzing attractiveness in terms of manufacturing companies’ perspectives, according to Manufacturing Risk Index 2018 of Cushman and Wakefield’s.
Turkey followed China, Lithuania, Malaysia, Taiwan, Canada, the US, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with Cushman and Wakefield saying Turkey’s main competitive advantage at present is its lower costs.
However, recent geopolitical uncertainty decreased Turkey’s attractiveness for international companies.
“Wage hikes and growing labor shortages in Central Europe are pushing more cost-sensitive industries east to Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey,” read the report.
Cushman and Wakefield Managing Partner Tugra Gonden said Turkey offered key advantages to global manufacturing companies, mainly thanks to highly attractive geographical position and growing infrastructure.
“Despite some escalating geopolitical risks, Turkey remains a key manufacturing powerhouse. We believe Turkey will climb the ladder in the long term by evaluating its position and potential accurately,” Gonden added.
