JEDDAH, 6 June 2007 -- OIC-member states must give greater priority to the development of economic and commercial cooperation among members to help meet the challenges of the 21st century, OIC Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said at a conference held in Ankara, Turkey last May 29-31.

At the 23rd meeting of the follow-up committee of the Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (COMCEC), in which the reports on the Ten-Year Program of Action regarding economic cooperation were approved, Ihsanoglu emphasized that reaching the 20 percent increase in intra-OIC trade by 2015 as planned in the program of action "requires the urgent adoption of institutional, financial and organizational measures," which means that member states should sign and ratify PRETAS -- the protocol on trade preferential scheme among members.

Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Senegal, Tunisia, Turkey and UAE have signed PRETAS, and Malaysia and Jordan ratified it.

Ten-member states need to ratify PRETAS for it to come into effect. Further negotiations for establishing PRETAS will be held in Turkey in June 18-22 and in September before submitting the final report to the COMCEC meeting in November for launching the project and making it operational by January 1, 2009 as scheduled.

Nabika Diallo, advisor to the OIC Secretary General, to Arab News that "trade negotiations on PRETAS cover two aspects: adopting the list of goods for reduced tariffs, and implementing the ways and means to reduce non-tariff trade barriers."

COMCEC follow-up meeting also adopted the draft 10-year plan for developing cooperation between OIC members in the tourism sector, which will be submitted for approval at the next COMCEC parley in November this year.

The meeting recommended measures to increase intra-OIC trade and means to boost production capacity and competitiveness of member states as well as improving investment climate and promoting joint ventures between them.

The meeting also discussed OIC Islamic Trade Fair, which will be held in Dakar, Senegal in November, and the second Tourism Fair to be held in Lebanon on June 6-8, 2008.

By Maha Akeel

© Arab News 2007