(CPV) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) have signed a framework cofinancing agreement to fund joint projects tackling Asia and the Pacific’s pressing public sector needs.

Under the agreement, ADB and OFID will invest in existing and new projects expected to help promote development in the energy, transport, agriculture, water supply and sanitation, education, and health sectors.

In tackling the enormous challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region, effective cooperation among development partners is becoming indispensable, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said at a signing ceremony at ADB’s North American Representative Office in Washington, D.C.

“Collaboration with a key development partner like OFID is crucial to meeting our strategic objective of reducing poverty and improving the quality of life in the Asia and Pacific region,” he said.

The signing of the framework cofinancing agreement follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in May 2011 that marked the official establishment of a collaborative arrangement on institutional and project-specific levels.

Commenting at the signing ceremony, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Director-General of OFID, said the agreement “further solidifies the long-standing relationship between the two organizations, dating back to 1977.”

“Our cooperation in over 90 projects has been highly beneficial for developing countries in the region and a good basis for scaling-up our joint activities - one of the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding we signed in May 2011,” Mr. Al-Herbish said, adding that the agreement improves the sharing of relevant information between the two institutions to enhance the identification and implementation process of cofinanced projects.

OFID is the second largest co-financier of ADB projects after the World Bank, financing more than $800 million as of the end of 2011 for more than 90 ADB-assisted investment projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Uzbekistan, among others.

OFID is a development finance institution which was established in 1976 by the Member States of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The primary aim of OFID is to contribute to the social and economic advancement of developing countries. All developing countries, with the exception of OPEC Member Countries, are in principle eligible for OFID assistance. Today, 132 countries spread across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe have benefited from OFID's assistance./.