Islamic Development Bank Launches Resilience Index

Tashkent, MINA – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has launched a new Resilience Index to help policymakers create mechanisms that support economic resilience.

The new index was launched during a special session of the 2021 IsDB Group Annual Meeting, which is currently taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the OIC News Agency reported on Friday.

IsDB President Dr. Muhammad Sulaiman Al-Jasser explained how the Bank was motivated to create an index after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the difficult lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of economic resilience. Our current economic system is globalized and complex. When there is a shock in one part of the global economy, it is felt widely. The development of this index is to help policymakers among our member countries track their progress in creating a more resilient economy,” he said.

During the launch event, Ilkhom Norkulov, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction of Uzbekistan, outlined several mechanisms that can help countries generate greater economic resilience.

“The COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan poses significant challenges at the community level, including straining health services, shocks to the workforce, and economic disruption related to the lockdown,” he said.

Nurkulov saidb, working with international partners including IsDB, the government of Uzbekistan is providing targeted financial support to families and businesses while also using the pandemic as an opportunity to encourage uptake of programs related to the transformation of its workforce.

“But these efforts are mostly ad-hoc and we are now trying to develop better policy tools to make Uzbekistan’s economy more resilient,” he concluded.

The Resilience Index will help policymakers from the 57 IsDB member countries track whether they are making progress in increasing economic resilience.(T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)