Press Release

OPEC Fund Director-General urges greater commitment to poverty alleviation

Al-Herbish addresses international conference

34/2005 April 19, 2005, Vienna, Austria

The Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, has called for stronger political will to push forward global poverty eradication efforts and help developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The political will to shift from dialogue and consensus-documents to action remains key to transforming the vision of sustainable development into reality,” he said.

Mr. Al-Herbish was addressing delegates at the 32nd International Energy Conference of the International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development (ICEED) in Boulder, Colorado, USA, on April 18.

ICEED is an independent, non-profit institution devoted to research and studies. The Center's activities are of direct relevance and benefit to industry, government and academia. Its international energy and area conferences rank among the most distinguished, worldwide.

Recalling the many pledges made by the international community to sustainable development since the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, Mr. Al-Herbish noted the lack of concrete progress in many areas: “Issues of growth with equity have remained largely unresolved,” he stated. “The world’s poorest countries have not been able to share in the benefits of globalization; indeed they face further marginalization from the mainstream of the world economy.”

Mr. Al-Herbish called for greater cooperation among all stakeholders in the development process. “The diverse difficulties of today cannot be resolved by any single government or development agency, acting alone,” he said. The OPEC Fund, he asserted, was fully committed to working with others to fight poverty and inequality.

The Director-General went on to emphasize the commitment of the OPEC Fund's Member Countries to global social and economic progress, citing the pledge made at the First OPEC Summit of Sovereigns and Heads of State in 1975 and reaffirmed 25 years later at the Second Summit in Caracas, Venezuela in the year 2000. “The resolve of OPEC Fund Member Countries [to live up to the Fund's mandate] is as strong today as it ever was,” he stated.

Since its establishment in 1976, the OPEC Fund has made available more than US$7.4 billion in concessional, untied development financing. Millions of people, in 113 countries in all developing regions of the world, have benefited from this financing, which has supported a wide range of operations in both the public and private sectors.