ISTANBUL, 25 November 2004 — Of the 55 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) only five are classified as high income group while 21 members belong to the middle group. The remaining 29 countries are classified as low income group, an OIC economic conference under way here was told.
Since 90 percent of OIC countries trade is being done with countries, not members of the organization, the economic performance and future prospects of OIC member countries will be largely influenced by developments in the industrial countries, said a report presented to the conference by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank.
The report added that while member countries in Asia and Africa have somehow sustained their macroeconomic performance, Muslim countries in the Common Wealth of Independent States (CIS), which gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, are facing the prospect of weak macroeconomic performance.
The conference was opened on Tuesday by Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said it was about time the Islamic world became more self-critical noting that while accounting for 20 percent of the world’s population Muslim countries contribute only 5 percent of the world’s income.
Erdogan, whose country hopes to win a date in December to start entry talks into the European Union by next year, stressed that the driving force behind globalization is the private sector, which in turn drives the economy and investment.
Businessmen held a series of panel discussion and brainstorming sessions to review Intra-trade and investment in their countries, the development of the private sector through the mobilization of investment and trade promotion as well as policy guidance and measures for improving the investment climate.
Their findings and recommendations will be presented today to government delegates at a joint forum. The participants voiced frustration at the lack of progress in the opening up of the markets of member countries and were especially critical of the restrictions imposed by the governments on the movement of people and goods.
“The businessmen want to see their work proceeding without being hindered. We hope the governments would respond to their demands by making things easier for them,” the participants said. This time more seriousness is being shown as evident from the discussions.
Even the governments are beginning to express some kind of openness,” Salim Al-Haqabani a businessmen from Oman told Arab News.
For the past 30 years Muslim leaders have been talking on the need for setting up an Islamic common market and since then questions have been raised over whether all OIC member will witness the theoretical benefits from such markets.
A report on the status of the economic and social development in OIC members spoke of widespread poverty, lack of proper health services and high rate of illiteracy. The study by the Ankara-based Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries, said some 37 percent or 344 million people of the total population of 28 OIC member countries were suffering from poverty. Total Muslim population is about 1.4 billion.
On the transport and communication sector, viewed as the backbone of development, the report painted a gloomy picture on the conditions of air, land and seas transport while noting that Muslims states are still lagging behind in information technology and communication.
On the state of transport infrastructure and capacity the paper noted that while the total area of OIC countries is almost three times that of the United States, United Kingdom, France and Japan put together, the total road network in those four countries amounts to 8.8 million kilometers or three times that of the OIC’s of 2.9 million kilometers.
The OIC railway network is 101,304 kilometers which if half of that of the US while the total network of the UK, France and Japan is 72 percent of that of the OIC region. On maritime transport the 55 OIC nations have a merchant fleet of 2,716 ships, with the highest numbers found in Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Iran and Syria with these six countries accounting for over 75 percent of total OIC merchant fleet. OIC fleet merchant amounted to 35.5 million gross registered tons by the end of 2002 which accounts for 6 percent of the world total’s.
The study said OIC countries have 4,485 airports of which only less than a third have paved runways. The US in comparison has 4 times more paved airports than the entire OIC countries. Only five countries, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have more paved runways compared to the others.
The total OIC number of passenger carriers was 107.6 million which is less than that in Japan. The highest number of kilometers flown was observed in Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates respectively.
While there are around 79 million telephone lines in the OIC region which is higher than that of Canada and Japan, there is however a major gap in terms of the number of lines per 100 inhabitants. The OIC average is 6.3 while the world average is 18 per 100 inhabitants.
The 83 million cell phones in the OIC region are still lower in terms of subscribers per 100 inhabitants compared to the rest of the word. The number of personal computers is estimated at 25 million which makes up 4c percent of the world total, with 17 million of the total found in Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia. The situation of the Internet is abysmal, with only 458,432 subscribers making it 0.3 percent of the world total.
The need for serious action was voiced by Aqel Al-Jassem, secretary general of the Islamabad-based Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an OIC affiliate who said serious consideration should be given to actual follow up and implementation of the OIC economic programs.
“We need to be realistic in our approach, keeping in mind the many constraints of our countries. While developing on long term ideas, we need to simultaneously develop short tern projects that provide the necessary platform. It is true OIC countries differ in terms of the level of infrastructure, development education and general economic terms but words should be followed by action and emphasis laid on realizing the economic prosperity and stability through the private sector.”
