Jeddah

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDBG), registered steady growth in its insurance operations in 2016. The Corporation’s annual report and financial statements approved by its Board of Governors during their 24th meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 16 May, 2017 revealed. 

The report has showed a 10% growth in business insurance operations to reach US$ 4,468 billion the whole the year. At the same time, new commitments showed an overall increase of 14% during the year 2016. In terms of distribution by business lines, the Short Term continues to capture the largest share of the business insured with 63%, followed by the Investment Insurance with 28% and Medium Term with 9%. 

Since June 2008, the Corporation has succeeded in maintaining this remarkable achievement, notwithstanding the impact of the financial crisis over the few past years. The latest rating announcement was made on November 16, 2016, where ICIEC’s rating of Aa3 was maintained with stable outlook. 

The Islamic Development Bank’s (IDB) Investment Promotion Technical Assistance Program (ITAP) managed by ICIEC, whose aim is to unlock the developmental potential of member countries through a comprehensive and integrated program of foreign investment promotion and technical assistance, has successfully delivered and participated in 12 projects and initiatives in 2016 in collaboration with key internal and external partners mobilizing significant financial and technical resources. Furthermore, ITAP has also launched several institutional development initiatives to improve the program’s performance. 

Commenting on the results, Mr. Oussama A. Kaissi, Chief Executive Officer of ICIEC, said “our concerted implementation of the strategy is clearly reflected in the figures. Altogether, the work we have achieved over the past few years has given us an efficient structure to build upon. None of this would have been possible without great dedication within our company and strong cooperation with various shareholders.” 

He further said: “We are now preparing for the next stage in our journey. Our strategy stands firm: we will become even better at combining knowledge of our markets and stronger ties with our member countries through unwavering shared processes and structures. By focusing even more on taking advantage of our size and the synergies that exist between our operations, we will continue to strengthen both the Corporation as a whole and the individual member countries. This will also enable us to continue to generate value for the shareholders, employees, customers and society in general.” 

Moreover, in the meeting, it was agreed that ICIEC will intensify interaction with leading companies and ECAs on how the corporation is intending to meet the investors’ requirements in terms of profitability and risk mitigation tools as well as delivering projects and services which are in line with the IDBG development impact requirements. The meeting winded up with the Board of Governors also appointing new external financial auditors for 2018.