By ARAB NEWS
ISTANBUL: Saudi Arabia has contributed $100 billion in non-recoverable aid and soft loans to 95 developing countries worldwide during the past three decades, according to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nizar bin Obeid Madani.
“This assistance covered basic development sectors such as health, education and infrastructure in the least developed countries (LDCs)” Madani told the 4th UN Conference on LDCs in Istanbul.
“We have contributed $1 billion for a fund that was set up for alleviating poverty and eradicating diseases and epidemics in the Islamic world,” the minister said.
At the extraordinary OIC summit in Makkah in 2005, the Kingdom announced a donation of $1billion, through the Saudi Fund for Development and the Islamic Development Bank, to combat illiteracy in the member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
“The Kingdom also announced a contribution of $500 million in development loans on easy terms, through the Saudi Fund for Development for educational projects in LDCs,” he pointed out.
In order to address the global food crisis, he said Saudi Arabia donated $500 million in 2008 to support the World Food Program’s endeavors to assist needy countries to meet the rising costs of basic food commodities, adding that the assistance benefited people in 62 countries.
Categories: Asia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
The development aid of the Arab nations is in fact very high and often gets ‘under-reported’. Private donations equally are very high and even more get ‘under-reported’, because the donor seeks ‘the pleasure of Allah’ and not the ‘media coverage’. May Allah reward them all.