IBF Calls for Economic Cooperation Among Islamic Countries

Author: 
Saad Al-Matrafi, Maha Akeel & Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News
Publication Date: 
Mon, 2005-10-03 03:00

JEDDAH, 3 October 2005 —-- The 9th International Business Forum (IBF) began at Hilton Hotel here yesterday with calls to strengthen economic and commercial cooperation among Islamic countries. Over 1,000 delegates including businessmen from over 18 countries attended the event, which was inaugurated by Jeddah Governor Prince Mishaal ibn Majed.

The forum focused on identifying and addressing mutual trade and investment issues and recommending solutions to overcome obstacles for intra-OIC trade.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) are the organizers of the forum, which provides information to companies about business opportunities in the international marketplace.

The theme of this forum is “Intra-OIC trade: Challenges and Opportunities” and Dr. Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, chairman of JCCI, in his welcoming speech got to the main issues facing the Islamic countries in their quest for better trade relationships especially that the world is moving toward economic groupings and alliances.

“In order for us to raise the level of our economic cooperation among Islamic countries, we need to look at the complementary system between three important elements: The role supposed to be played by the private sector, the public sector and civil organizations such as chambers of commerce and businessmen’s societies,” said Al-Sulaiman.

In his welcoming speech, Erol Yarar, president of IBF, brought in a religious perspective on the issue pointing to the need for Islamic countries to support each other for the better development of all as ordered us by Allah. “What makes us different is not just material progress, but achieving both material and spiritual progress together. The most important principle that separates us from capitalism is that the source of responsibility must be revelation, that is, Qur’an,” said Yarar. He talked about accountability, responsibility and making changes from within.

“The situation of Muslim countries is pathetic. While there are only two Muslim countries among the world’s twenty most developed nations, there are six Muslim countries among the ten nations with the highest levels of corruption,” he said.

He pointed out that Muslim countries share only 11 percent of total business volume compared to trade cooperation between EU countries of over 50 percent. He stressed the need to make systematic and institutional efforts at addressing the problems, for example, OIC countries developing a system like IMF to resolve the problem of resources and foreign debt. The first session addressed regulatory obstacles for trade and investment within OIC. Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the OIC, said that intra-trade between OIC countries increased by 5.5 percent in three years from 2001 to 2003. A distribution of exported products showed that 51 percent are primary products in 2003 with most of it, over 34 percent, is fuel but there was a rise in export of manufactured goods.

Saudi Arabia is the main intra-OIC supplier in 2002 with a 15.69 percent share in total exports followed by UAE and Malaysia. The main intra-OIC customer in 2002 was Turkey with 10.7 percent followed by UAE.

The geographical distribution of intra-OIC global trade in 2003 was mainly to the GCC with 35.4 percent followed by Asia with 31.8 percent and Middle East 19.61 percent.

Some of the main obstacles mentioned are tariff problems, infrastructure, and lack of information, lack of skilled human resources, lack of funding, visa problems, and investment protection. “We have reached 13 percent of total intra-OIC trade, in order for us to reach our goal of 25 percent within 10 years, we have to solve these problems,” said Ihsanoglu at a press conference held after the session.

“I think our goal should be more than 25 percent within ten years,” said Saud Ounallah, deputy secretary-general of JCCI and the president of the forum. “In my opinion, one of the most serious problems is bureaucracy. Some officials think that stating regulations is enough, but they are not aware about low-level officials who might interpret the regulations differently and put obstacles. This needs training and sense of commitment and responsibility by all officials,” he told Arab News.

The second session was entitled the role of the private sector in trade developing between the OIC countries and the world.

In the third session, which was about trade chances and challenges between OIC countries and the world, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Hashem Yamani said that there are three elements that will help in reshaping the international economical relationship, which is going through a cutting edge. The first element that the minister mentioned was the growing circulation of the international commerce system. “It has been clear that there is a growing dependable exchange between the economical systems of the countries,” said the minister. The second element, the minister pointed out, is the availability of technology and the rising need of transferring it to the developing world. The third element is the fading of the directed economy and rise of market economy.

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