Officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs and affiliated entities met His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank, at the Bank's headquarters in Jeddah. At the beginning of the meeting, the Bank President welcomed the Ministry delegation, headed by Dr. Saleh Al-Nassar, Director General of the National Center for Social Studies and Research, and including Dr. Saleh Al-Sughair, Eng. Abdulmohsen Al-Ashri, Yazeed Al-Rashid from the Social Charity Fund, and Asma Al-Khamis, Director of the Women's Section at the Social Security Agency. The Bank President emphasized the importance of activating the memorandum of understanding signed between the Bank and the Ministry and enabling the Ministry to benefit from the Bank's various programs for Islamic countries. Ministry officials then held an extended meeting with Bank officials and department directors. The delegation provided an overview of the Ministry, its agencies, programs and affiliated entities, and reviewed the Bank's activities, programs and projects, implementation challenges, lessons learned and programs suitable for application in the Kingdom. Dr. Al-Nassar stated that the parties discussed areas of cooperation and agreed to organize a specialized workshop in Riyadh to present the Bank's successful experience in small and microenterprise projects for needy families and explore ways to apply that experience in the Kingdom during the following month. He also confirmed agreement to activate joint cooperation in projects, research, studies and programs and to exchange periodic visits between the two entities.&nbsp

&nbsp