Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 07/04/2010
Doha, State of Qatar, 5-6 April 2010 Bismillahi Arrahmani Arrahim In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful Mr. Chairman, Honorable Members of the General Assembly and Board of Directors of ICCI, Distinguished Guests, Assalamu Aleykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to address the 26th General Assembly and 9th Board of Directors Meetings of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI). Let me, on this occasion, express my special appreciation to the Government and brotherly people of the State of Qatar for kindly hosting these two important meetings of the ICCI. I also congratulate the President, members of both the General Assembly and the Board of Directors of ICCI for the steady progress which they have so far accomplished in driving the activities of this important affiliated institution of the OIC. Today’s meetings are holding just immediately after the 33rd Islamic Commission on Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs, which concluded its work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 31st March 2010. During his meeting, the ICCI and other OIC economic agencies consulted and exchanged views on the implementation of the OIC Ten-Year Programme of Action which is now in its fifth year. It is therefore evident that the sterling contributions of ICCI are directly related to the promotion of active social-economic cooperation among Member States of the OIC. In this regard, I would also like to mention that the ICCI initiative to strengthen the economic ties among the Businesspeople of Member States is an important programme that will encourage active participation and involvement of the Private Sector establishments in the collective economic prosperity of the Muslim Ummah. Equally significant are various capacity building programmes which the ICCI continues to undertake among the business and productive sector operators in OIC countries. Traditionally, the private sector's involvement in economic development takes many forms: from major multinational corporations to small and medium enterprises, and range across a wide diversity of sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, industrial, transportation, services and etc. There has been a tendency to underestimate how important the private sector can and should be in stabilisation processes. For reintegration planners, it is crucial to recognise that it is the private sector that will employ and train the target group and will create an enabling environment for the new entrepreneurs to become successful. Moreover, Private Sector-led development covers a multitude of inter-related issues, such as pursuing macroeconomic stability, improving the business environment through effective regulation and corporate governance, and enhancing public-private-partnerships. I am glad to note that the Private Sectors in the OIC member-countries have been responding positively in the foregoing areas of activity, which are targeted at placing economic development at the core of multilateral relations. The General Secretariat is therefore desirous of promoting the engagement of ICCI in the development of the essential role of the Private Sector in the following areas: Firstly, the current objective of attaining a level of 20% in intra-OIC trade by 2015 will require a robust involvement of OIC private-sector establishments. With the PRETAS already in force since 5th February 2010, a programme by ICCI to increase advocacy for removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers would be an ideal method of meeting this target. In this regard, the creation of trans-national trading alliances among ICCI members will be a step in the right direction. Secondly, the Dakar-Port Sudan Railway is a gigantic integration project that will foster the growth of intra-OIC Trade and free movement of persons from West to East Africa and also from the African to the Asian Continent. This meeting would need to encourage ICCI members to participate in the Stakeholder’s Meeting on the project, scheduled for 26th May 2010. Thirdly, the issue of trade promotion as it relates to the staging of trade fairs and Private Sector Meetings is also crucial in our efforts to forge closer commercial integration. The General Secretariat has noticed the low turn-out and modest content of the exhibitions taking place under the OIC banner. The intervention of ICCI is needed to upgrade the standard of these trade fairs, thereby generating high-level patronage by the public and investors alike. Fourthly and with regard to the regional cooperation initiative, I wish to draw your kind attention to the huge economic potentials existing in closer cooperation with regional chambers and trade unions in OIC Member States. The existing regional groupings such as African Business Roundtable, GCC Business Group, Arab League business group, ASEAN regional business outfit and etc. can provide efficient mechanism for joint action in the area of integration. In the fifth place, let me state that development of the agricultural sector and food security is one of the priority areas in the economic agenda of the OIC, much as it is also in the global economic agenda. As you know, the high food prices, which reached an alarming proportion in 2008, seriously affected the OIC Member States, thus posing multiple and massive constraints to the development of these countries and the welfare of their citizens. One of the identified mechanisms to solve this problem is to increase production and productivity in agriculture with a view to achieving a corresponding increase in the revenue of the rural population, which constitute about 75% of the Muslim Ummah. The role of Private Sector for the development of agricultural industry as well as smallholder farms is very significant in this respect. Smallholder farmers are often extremely efficient producers per hectare and can contribute to a country’s economic growth and food security, more so as the organic agricultural production method is now gaining currency. Development of the smallholder farms or family farms in the OIC countries can be promoted actively by the ICCI. I therefore invite the attention of the distinguished members of the General Assembly and the Board of Directors here today to consider the above mentioned issues in their 2010 Work Programme. Finally, let me express once again our deep appreciation for the excellent cooperation, which has always characterised our joint efforts at repositioning OIC as a veritable actor in multilateral economic cooperation and as a driving force in the promotion of the overall welfare of the Muslim Ummah. In the same vein, I wish to express my conviction that ICCI, under the wise and able leadership of Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, will continue to support the noble objectives of a private sector-driven economic growth and development in the Muslim World. I wish you every success. Wassalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
