During of the 160th Session of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for International Development held on 19 September in Vienna was approved the allocation of a credit of US$ 45 million to contribute to the execution of a project in Cuba in 2018-2021 period regarding electrical power generation from renewable sources.
Since 2002 when the first agreement between Cuba and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) was signed, the prestigious institution has granted twelve concessive governmental credits for the implementation of projects in several Cuban provinces in agriculture, energy, and hydraulic resources devoted to the modernization of irrigation systems, the rehabilitation of electric grids and aqueduct and sewer systems. Five of the benefited projects are being executed.
The methodologies utilized by the Fund to channel financial cooperation, in the case of the loans, conditions are very favorable as long payments periods and low interest rates are granted. OFID also bestows donations for social and humanitarian projects such as the project carried out by the Cuban medical brigades when fighting Ebola in Western Africa.
OFID Governing Board approved yesterday nearly US$250 million to contribute to the funding of dissimilar projects in various developing countries.
As H.E. Mr. Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, OFID Director-General has explained to us, initiatives on cooperation projects emerge from the benefited countries which are the ones that know their needs; the Fund does not impose anything.
The energy sector has a great priority among the cooperation fields of the institution which is committed to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, particularly, Goal No. 7 for Sustainable Development. Mr. Al-Herbish who was Saudi Arabia Governor in OPEC, runs OFID since year 2003. In his office in Vienna, he proudly exhibits a photograph of his encounter with Commander in Chief Fidel Castro in 2004 when he visited Cuba for the first time.
(Embacuba Austria)