RIYADH: The OPEC Fund for International Development is currently in talks with Lebanese authorities for a significant intervention, the institution’s president announced.
In an interview with Arab News on the opening day of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, Abdulhamid Al-Khalifa shared that the fund is working with Lebanon to determine the optimal timing and approach to ensure the greatest impact on the country’s development.
This initiative is in line with the OPEC Fund’s ongoing commitment to global development, having already invested around $27 billion in projects across more than 125 countries. It also aligns with the fund’s mission to foster development, strengthen communities, and empower individuals.
“As you know, OPEC Fund is, as I said, a development institution and those institutions are created to take additional risks when it comes to development and they are what they call it counter-cyclical, when a country faces major issues, these institutions, intervene with high risk, but their objective is maximizing development impact, not maximizing returns on their assets,” Al-Khalifa said.
The president further emphasized that such institutions are not political in nature; instead, their focus is solely on driving development.
Al-Khalifa explained that the OPEC Fund has both a public sector arm and a private sector arm.
He added that the fund was already involved in investment projects in Lebanon through both arms and windows.
However, he noted that the approach depended on the circumstances and the right timing for intervention.
He mentioned that the fund was working with the authorities in Lebanon and looked forward to carrying out the intervention in the near future.
During the interview, the president also highlighted that while the region as a whole has significant potential, it also faces major risks, including geopolitical ones.
Al-Khalifa mentioned that some countries in the region were emerging from such risks, and expressed hope that this would help the region move forward. He added that the future held great potential and significant economic prospects for the region, particularly for the countries emerging from conflicts.
He added: “But also, you have countries that are stable and they are also doing well when it comes to economic development like GCC countries and also some Middle Eastern and North African countries.”
Al-Khalifa expressed his optimism about the future of the region but said: “It depends on many circumstances and depends on many risks that has to be mitigated.”
The president also highlighted that the OPEC Fund was established 50 years ago, with Saudi Arabia being one of the most important establishing members.
Al-Khalifa stated that the fund was focusing its efforts on development in both middle-income and low-income countries. He noted that Saudi Arabia, as the fund’s major shareholder, was supporting these countries through the OPEC Fund platform, which was one of the platforms Saudi Arabia uses to promote global development.
“As you know, Saudi Arabia is one of the major donors around the world when we compare it to GDP and they are processing their assistance through their bilateral institutions, but also they are using multilateral platforms like the World Bank, OPEC Fund, Islamic Development Bank and other regional banks,” he added.
