The Muslim nations of the world needed to
work together to prepare their economies against fluctuations and shocks
experienced in global economy, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, reported World Bulletin.
"We should all consider the needs and developments in world economy while
determining methods and instruments used in economic cooperation, Gul said in
his message to the opening session of the Follow-Up Committee of the Standing
Committee for Economic & Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), being held in Istanbul.
Strong efforts should be made to implement the projects that are on COMCEC's
agenda, he said.
"COMCEC, which aims to boost economic and commercial cooperation among
Islamic countries, should not remain indifferent to those developments and
should improve cooperation in this framework," said Gul. "Trade
volume among member countries increased to 16.3 percent in 2006. We should
exert a significant effort to improve trade in areas apart from oil and
agriculture products."
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of the OIC warned that the looming
global food crisis threatened many Muslim countries as some of them were below
poverty threshold and were suffering extreme economic problems.
"However, Muslim countries have the potential to overcome this
crisis," said Ihsanoglu.