KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Online): Oil-rich Muslim countries and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) have done little to help reconstruct the war-ravaged Afghanistan, Afghan Finance Minister Anwar Ul Haq Ahady said.
The focus of the Muslim community has now shifted to other areas such as Palestine and Iraq, and the financial aid from oil-rich countries have dried up, Ahady was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency here.
"We all deserve attention and some Muslim countries have the capacity to help but many Arab countries in the Gulf have participated very little in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," Ahady said, adding that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and IDB have not done enough to help his country.
The aid given by Saudi Arabia and IDB was mostly in loans, and Kuwait as well as many Muslim countries has yet to give financial support, Ahady lamented.
Ahady criticized IDB of only allocating 70 million US dollars over a three-year period, of which "less than one percent is grants and so far only five percent of the fund has been disbursed."
Saddled in grinding poverty and facing a bleak future, Afghanistan would find it tough to repay these loans and IDB has not been favorable in its lending terms, Ahady added.
Ahady is in Malaysia to attend the 30th annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors
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