From left: Adnan Muhammad Bin Hamad, NCB; Khameez Al-Qazzah, ICIEC; Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of the JCCI; and Abdulaziz Nasser Al-Sorayai, Chairman of the Industrial Committee of the JCCI, at the function. JEDDAH – The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, signed Saturday at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) headquarters a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia to export. The agreement also calls for cooperation among the signatories to provide solutions to meet the funding problems of SMEs. The signing of agreement was held under the auspices of Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of the JCCI, and under the supervision of Abdulaziz Nasser Al-Sorayai, Chairman of the Industrial Committee of the Chamber, and in the presence of a large number of Saudi businessmen. The MOU was signed by Khemais Al-Gazzah, the Operations Director and the acting CEO of ICIEC; and Adnan Bin Himd, senior Vice President of NCB. Under the memorandum, ICIEC will provide insurance services for 90 percent of the credit facilities provided by banks for SMEs. Commenting on the MoU, Dr. Abdel Rahman Tayeb Taha, chief executive officer of ICIEC, said “the signing of MOU comes within the framework of the role of ICIEC in supporting to boost development in its member countries.” The MOU is mainly to help SMEs in the Kingdom getting funding to their non-oil exporters. “Saudi businessmen are very active in doing business worldwide, and the financial Institutions in the Kingdom are the first to address that,” he said, adding that ICIEC is the only Shariah-compliant multilateral export credit insurance providing services which the financial institutions can rely on.” Moreover, Taha said “this agreement is a continuation of the activity carried out by the ICIEC since its inception in 1994 – supporting exporters, banks, and Saudi businessmen,” noting that the volume of business insured by the corporation in the Kingdom is more than $4 billion. “We are confident that this MOU will help to increase the size of non-oil exports to the Kingdom,” he added. – SG
