IOFS CONTINUES EXPLORING AREAS FOR STRENGTHENING COOPERARATION WITH QATAR

IOFS CONTINUES EXPLORING AREAS FOR STRENGTHENING COOPERARATION WITH QATAR
01 February 2023
The Director General of IOFS H.E. Yerlan Alimzhanuly Baidaulet continued his meetings in Qatar with a visit to His Excellency Minister Ghanem bin Shaheen Al-Ghanem, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. The parties discussed potential areas of collaboration, H.E Ghanem bin Shaheen Al-Ghanem stressed the importance of IOFS programs in coordinating strategic efforts to achieve sustainable food security in Islamic countries.



On the same day the IOFS delegation, led by H.E. Prof. Baidaulet, met with H.E. Mr. Yousuf Al Jaida, The Qatar Finance Center's Chief Executive Officer, and his team. At this meeting, the program for the establishment of the IOFS Fund, which aims to provide necessary financial products to Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States, to assist them in becoming more food secure and self-sufficient in essential commodities, was given along with a brief overview of the activities of IOFS. The parties also discussed the possibility and perspective of establishing the Fund on the basis of the Qatar Financial Center and aspects of working conditions.

The next scheduled meeting was with the Qatar Chamber led by H.E. Mr. Mohamed bin Ahmed Al Ubaidly, Board Member and Chairman of Food Security and Environmental Committee. The Chamber is a gateway to the vast private sector businesses in the State of Qatar. Both parties underlined the importance of the private companies for trade and investment in the areas of agriculture and food security and agreed to channel efforts in joint activities to combine the goals of institutional entities and businesses’ to mitigate risks that are hindering intra-OIC production, finance, trade and other aspects of the complex area of Food Security. The IOFS provided information on the projects that are currently being promoted to elaborate further with the Qatar Chamber.



Another meeting directly related to the private sector performance of the IOFS and its B2B subsidiary International Islamic Food Processing Association (IFPA) was with a branch of Zad Holdings (represented by Abdela Ali Ismail, Manager – Investor Relations) the Qbake Company’s General Manager, Saheem Ahmed Bhat. The Bakery Supply Chain project draws the interest of the Qbake Company to develop it further with a purpose to utilize production and processing capabilities of Kazakhstan in the grain and bakery industry for the sake of providing consumers not only with the food items complied with the Halal requirements but with healthy products (under especially designed recipes of the Kazakh Food Safety Institute) which are being demanded by the customers with a growing steadiness.