President Ashraf Ghani in a meeting with the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Yousef Al-Othaimeen, in Jeddah on Sunday praised the support provided by the OIC to Afghanistan and its active role in promoting peace and security.
Arab News reports that Mr. Ghani said Afghanistan sought to develop ties with the OIC to carry out cultural and social projects to combat extremism, hatred and terrorism.
Mr. Al-Othaimeen reiterated the organization’s commitment to promoting peace, security, stability and development in Afghanistan.
He also praised the role of the Afghan government in combatting extremism and fighting terrorism and condemned the recent bombings in the capital Kabul.
President Ghani also met with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Sunday, the Presidential Palace said in a statement.
The two sides discussed mutual relations between the two countries, ways to develop and strengthen the two countries ties in various fields and the latest developments in Afghanistan.
The Presidential Palace said in a statement that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Ministry of Finance of Afghanistan signed an agreement to establish and equip a 100-bed cardiac center in Kabul to provide high-quality cardiac health services in the country, besides establishing four integrated rural health care centers to improve access to primary health care services in four provinces.
The agreement was co-signed by the president of the IDB, Bandar Hajjar, and the Acting Minister of Finance Mohammad Humayun Qayumi.
Each of the four rural health care centers will provide a wide range of services in an area of up to 60,000 people, Arab News said in the report, adding that the total cost of the project is $24.84 million based on the preliminary estimates provided by the late King Abdullah’s Fael Khair Program, run by the IDB.
After signing the agreement, Mr. Hajjar met with President Ghani and discussed ways to develop relations between the two sides.
The report says that Mr. Ghani spoke of his country’s economic assets, which chiefly depend on agriculture, emphasizing that the IDB’s support for agricultural value chains in Afghanistan is important for developing agricultural production and moving it from the stage of exporting raw materials to exporting products.
Mr. Hajjar briefed the Afghan president on the efforts of IDB to improve production and productivity in its member countries.
