OIC Economic Outlook 2015
Date: 23 November 2015

SESRIC has launched the OIC Economic Outlook 2015 report during the 31st Session of the COMCEC that was held in Istanbul during 23-26 November 2015. The main highlights of the report were presented by H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC, during the meeting, where the Report and its special theme on investments have stimulated further discussions.

The OIC Economic Outlook 2015 analyses the trends in major economic indicators for the OIC member countries, as a group, during the latest five-year period for which the data are available (2010-2014). The Report investigates these trends in a comparative manner with their counterparts in the two groups of developed and non-OIC developing countries as well as with the world average. In so doing, the Report highlights a number of constraints and challenges confronting the OIC member countries in their efforts towards enhancing their economic development and progress.

This year’s Report also includes a special part on promoting investment in OIC countries. According to the Report, public sector can take the lead in making large scale investments to transform the economies, but significant constraints and inefficiencies are often observed in such investments. While investments made by public sector should be improved, there is also a need to utilize private sector dynamism to improve the productivity and competitiveness of investment projects. In many cases, private sector also faces significant challenges before or after undertaking major investment projects.

In this context, the Report provides some policy implications for improving the efficiency of public investment, leveraging private investment and attracting more foreign direct investment in OIC countries. The Report underlines that the success of OIC member countries in this regard is closely linked to the reforms needed to be made in a broad spectrum, including investing more into human capital and infrastructure, and completing reforms to improve overall macroeconomic environment and the quality of institutions.

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