The Consultative Meeting of the OIC Institutions on Enhancing Intra-OIC Trade
Date: 11-12 February 2009
Venue: Casablanca - Morocco

Within the framework of the implementation of the OIC Ten Year Programme of Action, which has been adopted by the 3rd Extraordinary Islamic Summit in December 2005, particularly in the context of the implementation of the “Road Map for Enhancing Intra-OIC Trade”, which has been adopted by the Expert Group Meeting on “enhancing intra-OIC trade” held in Ankara in July 2008, the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) organised the Consultative Meeting of the OIC Institutions on Enhancing Intra-OIC Trade.

The Meeting was held at the ICDT’s Headquarters in Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco on 11-12 February 2009 and attended by representatives of the following OIC institutions: the General Secretariat of the OIC, the COMCEC Coordination Office, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Cooperation Office, the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credit (ICIEC), the Islamic centre for Development of Trade (ICDT), the Organisation of Islamic Ship-owners Association (OISA) and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI). The Meeting was also attended by the Saudi Fund for Development, the International Trade Centre and the Regional Office of IDB in Rabat.

The Meeting discussed and elaborated on various activities and project proposals submitted by the representatives of various OIC institutions for the implementation of the Road Map for Enhancing Intra-OIC Trade with a view to achieving the target of 20% by 2015 stipulated by the OIC Ten-Year programme of Action. These activities and proposals were presented and discussed under the following five headings of the Road Map for Enhancing Intra-OIC Trade: Trade Financing, Trade Facilitation, Trade Promotion, Development of Strategic Commodities and Capacity Building.

During the discussion on the proposed capacity building activities in trade related areas, the representative of SESRIC, Mr. Nabil Dabour, Director of Research Department, informed the Meeting of the possibility of making use of the SESRIC twining capacity building training programme through designing and circulating a questionnaire on the needs and capacities of the member states in trade related areas. Based on the results of this questionnaire, a list of priority trade related areas can be specified and accordingly twining capacity building training programmes should be organised for the benefit of the member countries through matching the capacities and needs of these countries in these specific areas.

Following three working sessions in the first day of the Meeting, where the participants discussed and elaborated on various activities and project proposals submitted by the representatives of various OIC institutions, the second day was devoted to examine and compile these activities and projects in a matrix-format Road Map document. This document, which has been adopted at the end of the Meeting together with the final report and the recommendations, displays the recommended activities and proposed actions to be undertaken by various OIC institutions during the timeframe of the OIC Ten-Year programme of Action. The document also indicates a coordinator institution(s) for the activities and proposed projects to be undertaken under each of the five headings of the Road Map.

The Meeting decided to submit the final report together with the recommendations and the matrix-format Road Map document to the forthcoming relevant OIC fora for endorsement by the member states, notably to the 32nd Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Culture and social Affairs, which will be held in April 2009 and to the 25th Session of the COMCEC, which will be held in November 2009.