Land Gazette | Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Written by Alf Maxwell

The chief of the International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell, has been holding talks with Saudi finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf. Saudi news agency MENAFN reports that they discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the Kingdom and the corporation in areas of joint 'external agricultural investments' as well as 'activating' IFC's activities in Saudi Arabia.

Part of the World Bank, IFC fosters economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing capital in the international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments.

Like many countries without sufficient agricultural resources, Saudi Arabia has an aggressive policy of buying land abroad for agriculture.