Press Release

Grant agreement signed between the OPEC Fund and AOAD

32/2006 April 28, 2006, Vienna, Austria
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A grant agreement of US$300,000 has been signed between Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development, and Dr. Salem Al Lozi, Director-General of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD). The agreement was signed on April 13 at the Fund’s Headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

The grant is part of a US$1 million fund that was approved by the Fund’s Governing Board on March 14, 2006 toward global avian influenza control. The US$300,000 will help support AOAD’s regional project that includes all Arab countries and aims to assist infected countries in controlling and eradicating the disease, as well as helping at-risk ones take necessary prevention measures.

The remaining US$700,000 will be allocated to a similar project that has been jointly developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health and the World Health Organization.