OPEC Fund Quarterly - 2022 Q4

EVENTS

PHOTO: OPEC Fund/Axel Reiserer

Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa with delegates (clockwise from top left): Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Vice President, Eastern & Southern Africa; Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President, South Asia; at the Middle East and North Africa roundtable; Serhat Köksal, President, Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

Meetings with the World Bank Vice President for South Asia, Martin Raiser, and East Asia & Pacific Vice President, Manuela Ferro, were carefully prepared with the goal to raise the OPEC Fund’s profile and increase its business activities in the region. All sides agreed that development support must be delivered in a fast and targeted way, but without compromising essential regulations and safeguards. “Working together, we can maximize our impact,” the Director- General said. The World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings also attracted financial institutions and private investors back to Washington. The OPEC Fund took advantage of this and held several meetings led by Assistant Director-General Financial

Operations Tarek Sherlala with investment banks. The conversations provided important updates for the OPEC Fund’s future financing plans. Streamlining processes can contribute to lower transaction costs and deliver more impact, everybody agreed. Dr. Alkhalifa translated this into an ambitious target for the OPEC Fund: “We should put in our KPIs how much we can leverage from other sources for each dollar that we spend from our own resources. One dollar committed must be one dollar delivered.” It was not only the personal chemistry that created a close bond between many participants at the meetings in Washington. More than anything, the discussions were shaped by a shared

sense of responsibility to provide leadership at a time of unprecedented challenges. It was this spirit that allowed the OPEC Fund Director-General to draw a positive conclusion: “There is real appetite to enhance development work, especially on the three most pressing subjects: climate change, energy poverty and food insecurity,” Dr. Alkhalifa said. He added: “But our work must not be limited to those areas alone. Development work needs to have a long-term view and needs to address the structural deficiencies and gaps that are holding back the well-being of so many people.” With a strong result in 2022 and ambitious plans going forward the OPEC Fund is well placed to make a sizeable contribution.