Addressing the OIC foreign ministers’ meeting here on Thursday, Ihsanoglu said that the Gross Domestic Product of 57 Muslim countries reached $5.7 trillion, which makes up 8.3 percent of the global GDP. He said that OIC’s activities on the economic domain featured positive results since last year. OIC’s economic growth has improved on both the global and intra-OIC levels. With a combined GDP of $ 5.7 trillion representing 8.3% of the global economic output, the OIC remains a very strong international economic actor. In the same vein, and thanks to the various efforts aimed at sensitizing our Member States about issues relating to the implementation of our common trade agreements, intra-OIC trade has also increased in monetary value from $205.07 billion in 2004 to $687 billion in 2011. In terms of percentage, intra-OIC trade moved from 14.44% in 2004 to 17.71% in 2011. I should also seize this opportunity to express our appreciation to our ministers for responding favorably to my series of appeals for the signing and ratification of the various OIC instruments, including the very crucial ones on the Trade Preferential System (TPS). I have the pleasure to thank our Member States for having responded to our calls by securing 101 signatures and 65 ratifications of economic agreements since 2005, which is indicative of the responsiveness of our Member States to the need for the rigorous implementation of the TYPOA.

Similarly, there has been a remarkable progress in the execution of our various programs in the domain of poverty eradication, financial sector cooperation, agricultural development and tourism. The Special Program for the Development of Africa, which was put in place in 2008, has made all the targeted disbursements to the tune of US$ 4.5 billion in favor of a total number of 428 development projects. While the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development has increased its interventions in such sectors as micro-finance, vocational training and social services to the tune of USS 1.06 billion, the Islamic Solidarity Fund financed 2253 projects amounting to $195 million. This is notwithstanding the robust interventions of the various IDB Group entities and national development institutions.
While we commend our various economic institutions for their dedicated support for the various programs as set out in the relevant OIC resolutions, I wish to inform that our target in the coming year would feature the convening of investment forums to activate our dedicated development programs, such as the OIC Action Plan on Cotton and Agro-Food Industry’ , the Regional Project on ‘Sustainable Development of Tourism in a Cross-Border Network of Parks and Reserves in West Africa’, and the Plan of Action for Cooperation with Central Asia, as well as the Stakeholders’ Conference on Post-conflict Reconstruction. Somalia.
HA/IINA