36th Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs (ICECS)
Date: 30 June - 02 July 2013
Venue: Jeddah - Saudi Arabia

The 36th Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs (ICECS)” has been held at the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 30 June – 2 July 2013. The Session has been attended by the representatives of the OIC member countries and those of the OIC and its subsidiary, specialized and affiliated institutions.

The Commission met in the first day in its capacity as the Joint General Assembly of the subsidiary organs of the OIC (i.e. SESRIC, ICDT, IUT and IRCICA). In this connection, the Commission reviewed the activities of these institutions where the representatives of these institutions submitted and presented their activity reports. SESRIC was represented at the Session by Mr. Nabil Dabour, Director of Research Department.

Following the presentations and the deliberations by the Member States on the activities of these institutions, the Commission took note of the instructive technical reports and studies presented by SESRIC on the most salient items of the economic agenda of the annual sessions of the COMCEC, the Islamic Commission and other OIC Ministerial Conferences and meetings. It commended SESRIC for the quality and relevance of the capacity building programmes, courses and workshops it organizes on various subjects and fields of interest to the Member States with a view to enhancing and improving the level of technical cooperation among them; in particular, for its leadership in implementing long-term projects and launching new sub-programmes under the OIC-VET Programme and for its active role in organizing the annual meetings of the Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of the OIC Member States. The Commission also underscored the importance of SESRIC's database on socio-economic indicators of the OICI Member States and the various statistical publications of the Centre, and noted with satisfaction SESRIC's success in establishing the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-SC) and organizing its annual sessions.

The Commission then resumed its proceedings as the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs through reviewing and discussing a long list of agenda items on various economic, culture and social issues of cooperation among the member countries. In the area of economic affairs, the commission reviewed cooperation activities and discussed issues on the implementation of the OIC Ten Year Programme of Action, ministerial conferences in economic sectors, regional economic programmes, economic assistance to OIC Member States, and others. In the area of science and technology, the commission tackled issues such as higher educations, health and environment matters, OIC water vision, and others.