Press Release

OPEC Fund initiates art competition to find a new logo

79/2005 July 8, 2005, Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development has announced the start of a worldwide art competition, inviting graphic and design artists to create a new official logo for the institution. The announcement was made Friday and the competition rules posted on the website of the Vienna-based institution. Additional placement is planned in various newspapers and on websites of cooperating, peer agencies.

Professional as well as amateur and budding artists are invited to conceive a fresh logo to replace the existing design (above, left). The new logo would encapsulate and symbolize the essence and mission statement of the organization.

The OPEC Fund works to assist non-OPEC developing countries in their social and economic advancement. The Fund was created in 1976 as an instrument of solidarity among countries of the southern hemisphere and as a vehicle for the promotion of closer cooperation, in the financial field, between OPEC Member Countries and other developing countries. Thus far, the Fund has devoted over US$7.5 billion to financing development projects and programs and initiatives of high value in roughly 119 countries, worldwide. It also offers grants for technical assistance, research and studies and emergency relief, among others. The primary objective of the Fund is to help fight global poverty and to contribute to human resources development in the poorer regions and sub-regions of the world.

The Director-General of the OPEC Fund, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, expects a new logo to depict more accurately the role of the institution and its place among peer international finance institutions (IFIs). He speaks of a need “to raise the public profile of the OPEC Fund,” to delineate its distinction from OPEC as an energy organization and ensure that target audiences, worldwide, are aware of its increasing endeavors. In 2006, the OPEC Fund will mark its 30 th year of operations.