CFC receives the Ambassador of Albania and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
H.E. Ms. Adia Sakiqi, Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in The Netherlands, is seen with Managing Director Ambassador Sheikh Mohammed Belal at the Secretariat of the CFC. They discussed the activities of the Common Fund for Commodities as well as ways of future cooperation at this challenging time of global polycrisis.
Ambassador Belal while sharing the basics of the CFC’s structure and working process, also shared insights on how innovations in agriculture, which, in his views, are in abundance in the Netherlands and in the region, being used in the implementation of CFC’s projects. Ambassador Belal also shared with Ambassador Sakiqi, in response, stories from CFC’s projects where new innovations have been incorporated to bring higher productivity. Ambassador Belal also elaborated on how a project led by a women entrepreneur in Africa has been able to provide much needed nutrition for children. The realization of nutrition security is perhaps a stark lesson of this pandemic that we all have been sadly going through. They also discussed other innovations that CFC is either implementing or contemplating to implement in the near future.
Ambassador Belal further elaborated on the introduction of the Agricultural Commodity Transformation (ACT) Fund, erstwhile referred to as CIIF, at the LDC5 Conference in Doha on 5 March, and narrated the outline of CFC’s own road map for alleviation of poverty in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Land Locked Developed Countries (LLDCs) and beyond. As the ACT Fund has now been introduced, CFC member countries are welcome to join this impact investment fund as an anchor investor and recommending the same to the private sectors as well.
Ambassador Sakiqi expressed his satisfaction at the workings of the CFC and hoped that the good work of CFC shall also, in the future, extend up to her own country - Albania. With near neighbors like Greece and Bulgaria already being members of CFC, it almost makes it incumbent for Albania to join CFC and enjoy the impact of the fund right away, Ambassador Belal added. With its new orientation towards “blue economy”, Albania makes an ideal candidate to become a member of the CFC.
Ambassador Belal assured to pursue more innovative outreaches in the days to come to make the services of CFC available to as many people as possible in the commodity dependent developing world as poverty and hunger are regrettably showing a reversing trend globally.