Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 03/12/2009
Tunis, Republic of Tunisia 1-3 December 200 Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Assalamu Aleykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. Let me express my deep appreciation for the kind invitation extended to me to address this high-level International Conference, which is dedicated to exploring ways and means of promoting human capital development and socio-economic welfare within the Middle East and North African region, which are all members of the OIC. In the first place, I must commend His Excellency, President Zen El-Abidine Ben Ali for his gracious approval to convene this very important Conference under his auspices. This is symptomatic of the sustained attention which the Tunisian leadership has always accorded to issues relating to increased solidarity among members of the Muslim Ummah. I also acknowledge the outstanding efforts of both the Islamic Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), the World Bank Group and the Government of the Republic of Tunisia for hosting this Conference and for the excellent arrangements made for its success. In this regard, I recognize the noble efforts of my dear brother, Dr. Abdul Aziz Uthman Al-Tuwaigiry, the Director-General of ISESCO. The theme of this Conference is very significant and timely. It is coming at a time when the whole world is grappling with the triple crises which afflicted the world community and affected global prosperity considerably. As an appropriate response, the leaders of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference have also been pre-occupied with measures aimed at addressing these crises and at promoting closer economic cooperation among the fifty-seven countries that make up the Organisation. The Ten Year Programme of Action adopted at the 3rd Extra-Ordinary Summit held in Makkah El-Mukarramah in December 2005 gave detailed but specific mandates and timelines on the various priority actions that must be taken to promote the Islamic solidarity and unity in all spheres of human endeavours. In particular, the issues of poverty alleviation, capacity-building, literacy campaign and the eradication of pandemics loomed very large in the inventory of these recommendations. The conviction of OIC leaders is that Islamic spirit of solidarity and brotherhood could only be practical if the current paradigm of doling out aids to the poor and vulnerable populations is shifted in favour of promoting economic partnership and inclusion of these segments in the mainstream of economic activities within a balanced development framework. Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates This new move was to reposition the Organisation of the Islamic Conference as a veritable actor to promote economic partnerships among its member-states. In this regard, the General Secretariat as well as the economic agencies of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference have in recent times addressed the implementation of the Ten-Year Programme of Action with commensurate vigour. The main objectives of these activities are to leap-frog the many stages of development, which have eluded member-states of the Organisation, most of which are considered as developing countries. To this end, efforts have since been multiplied towards raising awareness in the area of education, technology transfer, capacity building and employment generation. The Ten-Year Programme of Action recognizes the accumulation of human capital as an important contributor to economic growth. Why it laments that the Gross Domestic Product of OIC countries was low compared to their combined population figure of 1.5 billion, it recommends that actions must be multiplied to ensure that intra-trade figure increases to 20% by 2015. OIC share of global trade was as low as 9.5% in 2007, while intra-OIC trade ebbed to 16.3% in the same year. It also underscores the need for a special programme for the development of Africa, given that one third of its members belong to least developed countries, most of which are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. The leaders also recommended the creation of a US$ 10 billion-worth Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development under the Islamic Development Bank, aimed at assisting member-countries to attain the Millennium Development Goals, especially in the area of access to qualitative education. The relationship between education and productivity is direct and positive. Our countries must emphasise education, research and development if we must achieve rapid industrialization and add value to exports from our countries, which are mostly primary agricultural products. With primary products accounting for 63.72% of total OIC exports, an increase in the current proportion of 21.10% for exports of manufactured items would contribute to the desired growth and increased earnings. Both the manufacturing/industrial sector and the tertiary service sector are regarded as engine of growth in the modern economy. It is widely accepted that scientific research and innovation remains one of the features that distinguish developed economies from developing economies of the world in the 21st century. Your Excellencies Distinguished Delegates During the golden age of Islam, the Muslim World was at the forefront of science, philosophy, culture and economic development. However, due to contemporary conditions of the scientific and technological infrastructure of many OIC member-countries, their contributions to Science and Technology have reduced. Yet, all hopes are not lost as could be seen from contributions of Middle East and Central Asian countries to learning, research and development. The average net primary enrolment in OIC countries has increased from 69.56% to 76.25% between 1990 and 2000. Most of the high rates belong to countries in the North Africa and Central Asia. The Sub-Saharan Africa only posted 47.26% but there are countries in this sub-region that have shown greater potentials to develop in this regard. It is in this connection that I am extremely delighted that this Conference is taking place in Tunisia, which has championed research and scientific development in the Muslim world to date. Tunisia is foremost among the four countries that possess the impressive records of having more than one thousand researchers per million people. My sense of delight and pride is also heightened upon the realization that the figures posted by both Tunisia and Jordan, are above the world average. However, the picture becomes less impressive when one considers the statistics which show that 9 member countries of OIC have less than one hundred researchers per million. This situation therefore entails that efforts must be multiplied to address these disparities in the name of Islamic solidarity and balanced economic development. I am therefore convinced that this Conference would map out ways by which a collective effort could be sustained to address these disparities. Tunisia, in partnership with our different stakeholders and development partners, is therefore in a better position to share its impressive experiences with other member-countries in this crucial area of developmental activity. A similar pre-occupation should be the problem posed by gender disparities in access to education and research. The share of women vis-à-vis the total number of researchers is above the world average in only 8 out of the 24 OIC member-states with available data. Some countries have 45% share of women researchers while some have as low as 17%. The result of this regional and gender disparity is that a critical mass of the OIC population is not in the mainstream of the development process. I am also convinced that this Conference would recommend practical ways through which more endowed member-countries of the OIC and indeed the international community can contribute to increasing the potentials of the poor, vulnerable and marginalised segments of the world community. Your Excellencies Distinguished Delegates The mobilization of the various stakeholders within the OIC for the realisation of the provisions of the Ten Year Programme of Action has begun in earnest. In addition to the intra-trade development issues, the recent launch of the Vocational Education and Training Programme by the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), during the just concluded Economic Summit in Istanbul on 9th November 2009 represented a practical measure to address the challenges of scarcity of skilled-based training, low quality teaching and lack of proper research facilities in some member-countries of the OIC. The OIC-VET is aimed at improving vocational training, contributing to development and competitiveness, increasing the knowledge and skill competences of the people according to the needs and priorities of labour markets. This training will focus on OIC partnerships at institutional level. It is my sincere belief that the current measures adopted by the OIC General Secretariat to encourage closer cooperation among the various agencies of the Organisation would assist in no small measure in achieving the socio-economic objectives enunciated in the Ten Year Programme of Action. In this regard, I would wish to avail myself of this opportunity to call for closer cooperation among the various institutions and organs of OIC working in the area of research and learning. SESRIC, ISESCO and its research centres, together with the Islamic University of Science and Technology must intensify inter-agency collaboration to ensure optimum results. This would ensure that national institutions in our member-states have easy access to their research materials and training facilities for maximum effect. The required partnerships among OIC member-states should also include partnership with the global community at large. In this age of globalization, this Conference would need to suggest methods through which the universality of scholarship and learning can be promoted. The global revolution taking place in the field of Information and Communications Technologies is such that requires all hands to be on deck so that we advance the cause of humanity and global peace and prosperity. The conclusions of this Conference must be such that can be easily quantified. Just as our leaders recommended the increase in intra-OIC trade to 20% by 2015, we must also agree on actions and timelines to ensure that adult literacy does not remain at the current 15 points below the world average. We must also adopt policies with a view to reducing the gender disparities in access to education and research in member-countries. Our development partners must direct their activities towards increasing public spending on education, research and development. We must encourage the Private Sector and the Civil Societies in our countries to increase private spending on education-related activities. Our actions must be immediate and pro-active. Productivity must be driven by knowledge and increased capacity of the human population in our countries if we must overcome the challenges posed by the current global crises. Growth in 2009 is projected to drop further to 2.3 % from 4.9% in 2008. This will push poverty level to lower ebb and increase the number of peoples living below poverty line. This Conference cannot afford to delay the crucial action of pooling all available resources on the global plane to address this global problem. The OIC General Secretariat would remain a credible partner as you chart the very significant course of improving knowledge-based economic performance in our member-countries. I wish you every success in your deliberations. Wassalamu Alaikum wa-Rrahamatullahi wa-Barakatuh.
