AAAID 35th annual meeting was held under the sponsorship of his Highness President Bashar Al-Asad. The meeting was held as part of the joint annual meetings of Arab financial institutions held in Damascus during 6 and 7 of April 2011.
The opening session was attended by H.E. Mr. Abdalla Al-Dardari, Syrian deputy prime minister, Arab prime ministers from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. In addition to the ministers of planning and international cooperation in Yemen, Jordan and Tunisia; the Sudanese minister of electricity; the ministers of economy, trade, electricity and irrigation in the Syrian government; general directors of central Arab banks; heads of Arab and regional financial institutions plus a number of diplomatic representatives in Damascus.

Initiating the meetings H.E. engineer Mohamed Naji Itri, head of the acting Syrian government, affirmed the importance of Arab financial institutions and funds in supporting Arab integration, financing development projects and setting the rules for effective economic and development cooperation among Arab states. Alluding to the role of Arab capitals in financing vital strategic Arab projects leading to the required Arab integration, such projects represent electric connections, roads, transport ,financing irrigation projects to achieve self sufficiency and Arab water and food security. In addition to supporting scientific research, developing the educational system, adopting technology and supporting small and middle projects and industries.

H.E. drew the attention to the importance of completing the required infrastructure for the greater free trade Arab zone and dealing with the financial and tax regulations in preparation for the establishment of the Arab customs union in the year 2015. In addition to incorporating services trade between Arab countries in order to achieve the highest levels of integration and to create job opportunities at the same time fighting poverty and unemployment as indicated by recommendations and decisions of the different Arab peaks, both in the economic field and otherwise. His Excellency also mentioned the importance of the annual meetings of Arab financial institutions and funds that are held during the same time span of the third meeting of Arab ministries of finance which is expected to result in more Arab integration and cooperation in the different economic, financial, cultural and social aspects.

H.E. engineer Mohamed Naji Itri further explained that these meetings come in a time of critical challenges for the Arab region whether political, economical or social; adding that these challenges must be conceived and dealt with carefully. Drawing the attention to the fact that these challenges should not be allowed to be exploited by external forces to create chaos in our societies. His Excellency further called for economic reforms, enhancing comprehensive development factors, alleviating poverty, unemployment, achieving fair distribution of wealth and maximizing the outcome of the potential for economic success in the Arab region.

His Excellency also spoke about the keenness of Syria to enhance and develop Arab cooperation as part of a bigger Arab strategic vision targeting the establishment of a solid economic system to protect the interests and resources of the Arab world. Moreover, to develop the progress of economic and social development as a vital requirement for Arab economic and food security, big economic entities, the directives and concepts of international free trade and the gradual adoption of regional and international partnerships on a basis of equality and balanced national interests. His Excellency mentioned that the international financial crisis which affected the economies of all countries especially the financial and the banking system and that led the international economy to stagnation that reflected on Arab economy to varying degrees. Growth decreased in the Arab region form 6.6% in the year 2008 to 1.8% in the year 2009, H.E. explained that taking the required measures in the right time by the economic and the financial authorities have contributed in reducing the effect.

His Excellency engineer Itri said that the extensive reforms undertaken in Syria in the economic, financial, legislative, educational and administrative aspects have proved to be successful in all economic and development sectors. Moreover they have led to exposure to international economy through the adoption of an economic and financial reform program aiming at enlarging the national economy base, diversifying the resources and attracting local and foreign investment. This comes within a frame based on partnerships between all sectors of the national economy releasing the potential of the society to participate in the process of building and development. H.E said, addressing businessmen, investors, institutions, banks and Arab financial funds to set their investments in Syria, to build economic and development partnerships and to support the financing of development and services projects especially strategic projects such as irrigation, roads, electrical energy and others.

On his part H.E. Mr. Salah Al-Din Al- Muzwar, Moroccan minister of economy and finance, head of annual joint meetings for Arab financial institutions, mentioned the big contributions made by Arab financial institutions and the role they played over the past decades in supporting economic and social development and enhancing Arab economic integration. H.E. affirmed the important and integrated role of these institutions to provide financing for development and investment projects in both the public and the private sector, sectoral and hierarchical governmental reforms, achieving financial and cash stability, financing inter Arab trade, providing guarantees for investment and export inter Arab trade and supporting and developing the agricultural sector.

H.E. Mr. Salah Al-Din Al- Muzwar called on the assembled financial institutions to reconsider their role and to enrich it in accordance with the arising needs in the region by means of widening the range of their involvement and by intensifying support to project with a social nature in order to alleviate poverty and to raise the health and educational standards in the region. In addition to putting more efforts into enhancing Arab cooperation by financing more joint Arab development projects that lead to more Arab economic integration at all levels, especially infrastructure projects, agricultural projects, adopting advanced technology and achieving food security. In addition to supporting the continuation of hierarchy and sector reforms, applying new methodologies to provide more financial resources of a fast withdrawal nature to keep up with the efforts exerted in Arab countries to deal with the changes in global economy. He also called for the development of new rules and regulations and the adoption of transparency to improve the business and investment environment.

H.E. Mr. Ali saeed Al-Sharhan, head of AAAID, discussed the organizations aspirations and efforts to achieve Arab food security and the plans to upgrade the agricultural sector. H.E. stressed the importance of drawing a map of the priorities of agricultural investment in the Arab world, motivating the private sector as a strategic partner, enriching resources, enhancing economic integration, supporting infrastructure projects and investing in scientific research. In addition to giving attention to small scale farmers and rural youths and adopting knowledge as a basis for investment.
H.E explained AAAID’s vision in enhancing food security by joint Arab cooperation based on guidelines such as investing in and employing the positive aspects of its previous experience and finding substitutes in order to achieve success. In addition to aspiring to a future capable of embracing the climatic, technical, social and economic changes.

H.E. president of AAAID gave a detailed presentation of the organization’s achievement in the year 2010 explaining that that the companies and existing institutions that AAAID has contributions in have reached (25) companies (8)companies and (36) investment project still under evaluation distributed among (12) Arab states. The contributions of AAAID in the total capital of these companies reached (existing at execution) approximately 101.4 million Kuwaiti dinar (about 361 million American dollar) equivalent to 101% of AAAID paid capital. In relation to the value of investments in the companies in which AAAID and its partners from both the private and public sectors have contributions, H.E clarified that they are estimated to be around 651 million Kuwaiti dinar (about 2.32 million American dollar) 15% for AAAID, 55% for the public sector and 30% for the private sector. Moreover, the projects that AAAID has supervised their execution like the Veterinary Medicines Company, the Production and Manufacturing of Arab Poultry Company headquarters building, the rehabilitation of the Arab Sudanese Oils Company, following up the execution of the Arabic Centre for Agricultural Genetic Engineering and the companies of agricultural services in Mauritania and elsewhere.

The president of AAAID also mentioned the organizations efforts on the reformation and development of the existing companies and subjecting some of the companies to analytical technical studies. These companies were reviewed by financial teams and the recommendations and decisions taken by these teams led to the transformation of these companies to profitable companies more capable of repaying the loans obtained from AAAID. H.E. also mentioned the direct loans obtained from AAAID to finance the rehabilitation and development of a number of its companies to increase the production capacity and finance the increasing operational needs which amounted to the sum of 226.63 million dollars by the end of the year 2010. In addition to offering guarantees to loans to a number of companies that amounted to the sum of approximately 69 million dollars. Moreover operational loans were offered that amounted to approximately 14 million dollars to finance production inputs in order to utilize the full production capacity. The most important of these loans was the operational loan for the Arab Sudanese Company for Agriculture in the Blue Nile to finance the farming of 60 thousand hectares with sorghum, corn, sun flower, cotton and sesame. His Excellency mentioned that the total of AAAID financial portfolios for the year 2010 was about 310.9 million dollars and the withdrawal from the portfolios was about 34.1 million dollars to in order to meet the cash flow.

Concerning the final calculations for the year 2010 His Excellency explained that AAAID achieved a net profit by the end of the year of approximately 15.5 million dollars, shareholder dues were approximately 568 million dollars equivalent to 159% of the paid capital, despite the distribution of profits amounting to 99% of the paid capital. The total expenditure for the year 2010 was about 17.82 million dollars in relation to 20.63 million dollars for the year 2009. AAAID assets at the end of the year 2010 were estimated to be 736.2 million dollars versus 718.8 million dollars for the year 2009.