Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 23/12/2009
Ankara, 22-23 December 2009 Mr. Chairman Distinguished Participants It is indeed a great pleasure for me to address this very important Experts Group Meeting on the establishment of the OIC Development Assistance Committee. Let me at the outset express our sincere appreciation to the Director-General and members of staff of SESRIC for the excellent arrangements made for the convening of this meeting. Their expeditious action in calling for this meeting as a follow-up to the First Meeting of the Development and Cooperation Institutions of the OIC held in Istanbul last May is worthy of note and appreciation. The General Secretariat places high premium on the work of the proposed Committee as well as the work of this experts Meeting. The issue of cooperation and joint action among the various Development and Cooperation Institutions in the OIC member-states is at the core of the objective of fostering genuine Islamic solidarity and brotherliness among members of the Muslim Ummah. This demarche is crucial to the aspiration to accelerate economic cooperation and development among Member-States of our Organisation and it is in tandem with the vision, which OIC leaders elaborated in the Ten Year Programme of Action. Certainly, the task of economic cooperation has only recently received the required boost in the agenda of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It is gratifying that series of actions are now taking place at many levels, with a view to transforming the OIC into a veritable actor in promoting development and well-being of the peoples in the 57-member countries of the Organisation. In its decided action to ensure the successful implementation of its economic objectives, the OIC General Secretariat is partnering other agencies within the OIC family to embark of those programmes and projects that would increase the capacity of the teeming majority of our peoples to address the current challenges posed by the existence of a preponderant number of LDCs within the OIC membership. The various programmes on poverty-alleviation (ISFD, SPDA, ICD, ICIEC), which are domiciled in the Islamic Development Bank, are specifically geared towards addressing the all-important issue of poverty reduction and resource mobilization for the development of the Muslim Ummah. On its part, the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) has recently spearheaded action in the area of Bank/Financial Sector Reforms and the recently launched Vocational and Educational Training Programme (VET). This current initiative, which bears on mobilization and coordination of development assistance among OIC countries (and possibly the Muslim communities in non-OIC countries), is also a creative means of upgrading the welfare of our fellow brothers and sisters within the Islamic joint economic action. Mr. Chairman Distinguished Participants It is apparent that the need to increase the capacity of OIC countries to address the difficult economic situation, attendant on the series of global financial, food and energy crises, has informed the various actions currently embarked upon by Muslim leaders. The expressed desire to expand intra-OIC trade and the accompanying efforts at eliminating trade barriers among members are aimed at stimulating economic growth, particularly among those low-income countries, which constitute more than one third of the OIC member-states. Consequently, the present constraints on transforming the traditional economies of OIC countries to those economies comparable with the modern industrial and information age have made it incumbent on us to embark on the task of pooling our resources together to stimulate investment in all critical economic sectors. Overseas development assistance can be better coordinated if we succeed in putting a machinery in place for this purpose. In the same vein, we must also address related issues of coordinating national policies on development paradigms and technical cooperation. This will accord with the current trends, which emphasize trade over aid in fostering South-South Cooperation and even North-South Development. We must cooperate together to increase our absorptive capacities with regard to overseas development assistance, while given consideration to other emerging local sources of financial transfers, such as the Diaspora. Undoubtedly, these Development Institutions are capable of assisting in directing the structure and performance of set economic objectives and standards. The current situation whereby most of the OIC member-countries were able to sustain appreciable growth in their GDP despite the global recession is salutary. However, this success became very transient judging from the fact that such revenue increases did not trickle down to the generality of the masses in the rural areas. We have to cooperate together to increase the capacity of these Institutions to reduce the dichotomy between the rural and urban population and between the rich and the poor segments of our populations. As we look forward to the successful outcome of your meeting, we remain convinced that this endeavour would usher in a new vista for rewarding economic enterprise that would greatly encourage competitiveness, technology transfer, best practices and mutually rewarding economic exchanges. It will create a partnership that would provide a win-win situation in the current efforts to develop agricultural capacity within the Muslim World through investment by countries with financial resources in countries with natural endowments. It is also gladdening that the issue of good political, economic and corporate governance is within the mandate of the proposed Committee. The nexus between peace, security, stability and economic prosperity is indeed intricate. The pervasiveness of poverty has negative security implications as could be seen from the multiplicity of political crises in our countries. A hungry man being an angry man, this situation also engendered corruption and colossal waste of resources due to poor regulatory framework in our countries. I am convinced that the work you are about to accomplish would approximate the search for collective welfare for the Muslim Ummah. The remit of this Committee would need to be multi-faceted, including addressing the problems inherent in the rapid transformation of the economies of the Muslim World, while at the same time providing concerted solution to the related socio-economic issues of good governance, best practices, conflict prevention, management and resolution. I wish you happy deliberations. Wakul iimalu fasayara llahu amalakun warasooluhu walmuhminoon. Wassalam alaekun warahamatullahi wabarakatuhu. \
