“AGFUND allocates 500 million dollars for the microcredit industry in the Arab region”, Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz says

Calling for full commitment to the principles that guarantee the Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz puts forward four concepts in order to enhance the global alliance against poverty; these concepts are moral, economic, political and media ones. Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, president of the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND,) has declared that AGFUND’s efforts in the field of fighting poverty in the Arab Region shall proceed at a rapid pace knowing that the amount of money allocated for this purpose is expected to reach 500 million dollars by the year 2015. His Highness, in the speech that he delivered for the microcredit summit conference, held in Valladolid, Spain said: “We have already reached one million benefiters in the Arab countries, where we had previously established our banks for the poor; similarly, by our present plan we target five million benefiters in the Arab region by the year 2015. Accordingly, we aspire that the cumulative total cash expected to be allocated by us for the microcredit financing shall reach 500 million dollars” Prince Talal’s speech included a presentation of the most significant points of his Highness’s initiative marsh towards establishing the banks for the poor in the Arab world, describing the social return achieved as a result of the banks for the poor as “satisfactory” and added that empowering women, Saudization, creating job opportunities for the youth side by side with qualifying the new graduates, come on head and above of all the objectives of those banks that provide small and microcredits. His highness added mentioning: “As a result to the significant activity of the banks for the poor located in the four Arab countries ( Jordon , Yemen, Bahrain , Syria) , we have agreed upon unifying AGFUND’s banks in every country under the name of “ Creativity Bank” , which actually reflects the nature of these banks with all its dynamism and vitality as well as providing products that meet the actual needs of the poor , like for instance , the provident funds for the sons of the poor and the “micro health insurance” , which is applied for the first time in the region.” His Highness, the president of AGFUND called the participants in the global summit to present their experiences and modals of success in the field of microcredit in order to help the developing countries accomplish the millennium’s objectives in restraining the wide spreading of poverty Prince Talal addressed the summit participants saying: “ We aren’t here merely to express our support to this broad alliance to curb the spreading of poverty, just as well , our presence isn’t also to prove the extreme competence and worthiness of the microcredit mechanism, as this has already been established , specifically speaking when this kind of financing imposed and proved itself efficient and superior to the different economies and became one of the most crucial global current issues, but actually we are with you here today post to the generous outcome gained out of the microcredit campaign via its regional and global summits and to assure that the microcredit journey does actually need more enhancement” Prince Talal specified four basic principles to support and promote the microcredit finance, among which are: “working effectively to invest the success of those campaigns specified for the mechanism of financing the poor and preserving the microcredit on top of the development issues, as well as demonstrating to the whole world the best microcredit possible applications and the extent of success achieved in every region, in addition to the exchange and wide-spreading of successful experiences. Prince Talal further highlights the importance of the continuation of this global alliance against poverty in the same manner described by His Highness as “Positive Spirit” to contain and curb poverty, explaining that the poor are the most affected by the developmental imbalance resultant from the global economic crisis. His Highness also stressed saying: “The efforts that we exert via this alliance should be accompanied by a serious approach to authorize the necessary legislations to promote the microcredit industry in the whole world” It is is definitely worth mentioning that the conferences of the global and regional microcredit summits organised by the microcredit summit campaign have started since the year 1997. The first Microcredit Summit in the Middle East and North Africa t was held in Amman, Jordan in 2004, in association between AGFUND and Microcredit Summit Campaign. According to a report released today by the Microcredit Summit Campaign More than 137.5 million of the world’s poorest families received micro loans (microloans) in 2010—an all-time high, Assuming an average of five persons per family, these 137.5 million microloans affected more than 687 million family members.