Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 31/01/2011
The OIC Secretary-General, His Excellency, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has urged Heads of State and Government of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) to increase participation of its Member States in the OIC Preferential Trade System (TPS-OIC). In his address before the 15th Summit of WAEMU, which concluded its proceedings in Bamako, Republic of Mali on 22 January 2010, the OIC Secretary-General enumerated the various activities of the OIC in WAEMU member states, particularly in the area of trade, capacity building, agriculture and rural development, vocational training, micro-finance and cotton sector development. Expressing optimism that the promotion and harmonisation of trade policies would stimulate growth of the economies of WAEMU Member States, Prof. Ihsanoglu expressed satisfaction that the OIC trade financing activities in the eight Member States of the Union reached US$3.135 billion in 2010. It is worth mentioning that the two organisations have recently activated bilateral discussions for increased participation in the TPS-OIC, within the framework of the renewed emphasis for active participation of sub-regional groupings in the implementation of the OIC Ten Year Programme of Action in critical economic sectors.
