Jeddah, 25.09.2012 – The Islamic Development Bank Group on Tuesday hosted an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) to discuss promotion of regional economic cooperation amongst member countries.

In his opening statement, the IDB Group President, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, underlined the Bank’s commitment to promote cooperation with all local, regional and international institutions, organizations and corporations to enhance development efforts amongst the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). “The present international situation requires further cooperation and coordination in all possible development fields including economy, trade, science and technology and
exchange of expertise to materialize the common goal of intensifying development efforts in member countries”, stated Dr. Ali.

Dr. Ali observed that the current level of trade exchange amongst the IDB member countries is still low at 17 per cent and emphasized that it should reach 20 per cent by the year 2015 as stipulated in the 10-year action plan endorsed by the 3rd Mecca Extraordinary Islamic Summit in December 2005. Concluding his remarks, the IDB Group President urged the delegates to come up with practical recommendations to materialize the goals for which the meeting was held which was to improve living
standards of people around the world by advancing development.

The event was attended by HE Hameed Ajibiye Opeloyero, Assistant OIC Secretary General for Economic Affairs and representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Arab League, the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC), the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), the
Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Karachi (ICCI) and the Islamic Chamber for Development of Trade (ICDT).