OIC to focus on bilateral trade
Says Morshed
Unb, Dhaka
Leaders from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) have agreed to promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation among the member-states and to develop an Islamic Common Market (ICM).They discussed the strategy at the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) as part of a policy reform towards mainstreaming the OIC to face any negative impact of globalisation and campaign against the Islamic Ummah. "We've to come out of an orchestrated campaign against the Islamic countries," Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan told reporters at Zia International Airport yesterday on return from the 32nd conference of the ICFM held in Sanaa, Yemen, June 28-30 "It (orchestrated campaign) will not be a problem…member-countries can offer trade preferences bilaterally," he said, replying to a question whether fresh organised campaigns will be launched against the effort to develop ICM. He said the conference decided to form a committee of enlightened people to devise the means of reform, which will be submitted at the OIC summit likely to be held in Makkah by the end of this year. The conference adopted a 15-point Sanaa Declaration with a plan to review the progress in the next conference of foreign ministers in Azerbaijan towards fixing the strategy to face the challenges of the new era. It stressed the need for intensive interaction among the member- states on the tariff and non-tariff issues as adopted in the declaration as well as importance of replicating best practices within the Islamic Ummah. Morshed said the conference also agreed to augment intra-OIC trade and economic cooperation to narrow the rich-poor gap within the Islamic Ummah. For developing human resources, Bangladesh requested the conference to expand the education facilities in the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Gazipur with a medical faculty. The minister had bilateral talks on the sidelines of the conference with the President of Yemen who invited Bangladesh RMG entrepreneurs to invest in the special economic zone of Yemen, taking advantage of the country's location close to African markets. He also met foreign ministers of Yemen, Iran, Russia, Italy, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines and the OIC secretary general.
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