The 37th Meeting of the Board of Directors of SESRIC
Date: 08-09 October 2015
Venue: Istanbul - Türkiye

The 37th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) was held in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, on 8 - 9 October 2015.

For the first time, the official meeting of the Board of Directors was preceded by an opening ceremony and a special session titled “Strengthening Technical Cooperation among OIC Member Countries: The Role of SESRIC”.

Following a recitation of the Holy Quran, the opening ceremony of the 37th Meeting of the Board of Directors started with a welcome speech by H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC. Ms. Şennur Onur, Head of International Relations Department at the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT), read the message of H.E. Mr. Birol Aydemir, President of TURKSTAT in his capacity as the representative of the Republic of Turkey, the permanent member of the Board of Directors of SESRIC. Amb. Kenan İpek, Istanbul Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey also made a welcome statement at the opening ceremony. Mr. Gholamhossein Darzi, Director at the Department of the Economic Affairs of the OIC General Secretariat, read the message of H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, the Secretary General of the OIC, to the special session on “Strengthening Technical Cooperation among OIC Member Countries: The Role of SESRIC”.

MoUs signing ceremony was organized at the end of the opening ceremony, where the Director General of SESRIC, H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, signed two MoUs: one with the Libyan Programme for Reintegration & Development (LPRD) represented by Mr. Mustafa El Sagezli, General Manager of LPRD; and the other with the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation (ICYF-DC) represented by H.E. Amb. Elshad Iskandarov, President of the ICYF-DC.

Following the opening ceremony of the 37th Meeting of the Board of Directors on 8th October 2015, a special session on “Strengthening Technical Cooperation among OIC Member Countries: The Role of SESRIC” was organized by the Centre in the same day. In addition to the members of the Board of Directors of SESRIC, the session was attended by representatives of some relevant OIC, national, international and NGOs institutions which work in similar domains to the mandates of the Centre and have the potential to partner SESRIC in conducting activities, projects and programmes for the benefit of the member countries.

The participants in the special session deliberated and exchange views on ways and means of strengthening technical cooperation among OIC member countries in various fields and areas related to the mandates of the Centre. Attempt has been made to explore some new specific modalities and approaches for enhancing the role of SESRIC in this regard as well as some scenarios for partnership in specific activities and programmes with relevant international, regional and NGOs institutions.

The official session of the 37th meeting of the Board of Directors was convened on 9th October 2015 and attended by Amb. Zainal Abidin Bakar (delegate of Malaysia), Ms. Mansooreh Yazdankhah (delegate of Islamic Republic of Iran), Ms. Şennur Onur (delegate of Republic of Turkey), Ms. Ola Awwad and Mr. Borhan Mohammed Issa (delegates of State of Palestine), Mr. Mustafa El Sagezli (delegate of Libya), Mr. Salahadine Hassan Abdalla (delegate of Republic of Chad) and Amb. Sékou Camara (delegate of Republic of Guinea),

The representative of the Secretary General of the OIC, Mr. Gholam Hossein Darzi, Director at the Department of Economic Affairs, and Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC, attended the Meeting as ex officio members of the Board. The Meeting was also attended by the heads of the departments at the Centre.

The Director General of the Centre, Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, opened the Meeting and welcomed the Members of the Board of Directors. He congratulated the new Members of the Board (the representatives of the State of Palestine, Libya, Malaysia, Republic of Chad, and Republic of Guinea) and expressed his confidence that the valuable deliberations and recommendations of the Board Members will be highly instrumental in improving the work of the Centre for more benefit to the member countries.

Following the welcome speech of the Director General of the Centre, the Members of the Board of Directors elected the delegate of Libya, Mr. Mustafa El Sagezli, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the three-year period of 2015-2017. They also elected the representative of the Republic of Turkey as the Rapporteur of the meetings of the Board of Directors for the same period

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Mustafa El Sagezli, delegate of Libya, addressed the Meeting and thanks the Board Members for the confidence they accorded to him as the Chairman of the Board. He expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Director General and the Staff of the Centre for the warm hospitality and excellent arrangements and preparations they made to ensure the success of the Meeting. He also expressed his readiness to work in a collaborative manner with the Board Members and the Director General of the Centre with a view to supporting the Centre in its future work for more benefit to the member countries.

The representative of the OIC General Secretariat, Mr. Gholam Hossein Darzi, Director at the Department of Economic Affairs of the OIC General Secretariat, to read the message of H.E. Iyad Madani, Secretary General of the OIC to the Meeting.

In his message, the Secretary General congratulated the new members of the Board of Directors and renewed his felicitation to the new Director General of SESRIC Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya. He mentioned that SESRIC has over the years contributed to the various OIC activities in the area of statistics, research and training, which played important role in galvanizing actions around the central goals of sustainable development through enhancing the capacities of human resource and poverty alleviation in OIC member countries. He also appreciated the role of SESRIC in providing institutional support for important OIC cooperation forums and programmes such as the Statistical Commission, the Meeting of Central Banks and Monetary Authorities, the OIC-VET Programme and the Occupational Health and Safety network. In his message, the Secretary General noted that the role of SESRIC has become more pronounced at this critical period in the history of the OIC, when efforts are at an advanced stage towards the elaboration of a new OIC policy implementation framework, tagged OIC-Agenda 2025; the successor programme to the current Ten Year Programme of Action, which will expire at the end of this year.

The Board of Directors considered and adopted the Draft Agenda of the Meeting. The working session, subsequently, continued under the direction of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Mustafa El Sagezli, delegate of Libya. During the working session, the Board Members reviewed and discussed the Report of the Director General, the Final Accounts of the centre for the Financial Year 2014 and the Budget Proposal and Work Programme for 2016. Under the agenda item “Any Other Business”, the Board of Directors discussed and elaborated on the Centre’s proposal for re-designing the organizational structure of SESRIC. During the discussions and deliberations, the Members of the Board of Directors provided valuable comments and recommendations on various technical, administrative and financial affairs of the Centre with a view to improving the work of the Centre for more benefit to the member countries.