The Twenty-third Session of the COMCEC convened in Istanbul on 14-17 November 2007 with the participation of delegates from 46 OIC member countries and a number of related international and regional organizations. The Ministerial Meeting of the Twenty-third Session of the COMCEC was held on 16-17 November and started, in the opening ceremony, with the inaugural address of H.E. Abdullah GŰL, President of the Republic of Turkey and Chairman of the COMCEC.

The First Arab Statistical Conference (FASC) was organized by the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS) in cooperation with the Department of Statistics in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and held in Amman, Jordan between November 12 and November 13, 2007.

Within the framework of the implementation of the Action Plan for the OIC Cotton Producing Countries’ Cooperation Development Strategy (2007-2011), the Forum on Enhancement and Promotion of Trade and Investment in Cotton Sector among OIC Member Countries was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Turkey in collaboration with the OIC General Secretariat and held in Istanbul on 12-13 November 2007.

The First Forum of Tourism in Islamic Countries has been organized by the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) in cooperation with the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on October 30-November 1, 2007.

The General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP) hosted the GCC Labour Market Symposium in Doha on 29 – 31 October 2007. The symposium addressed recent trends and developments in the labor market including the use of new analytical methods to improve the generation of employment indicators and related indices.

The 4^th Meeting of the 2^nd Round the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) was held on 10 - 12 September 2007 in Ankara to continue and conclude its deliberations on the Rules of Origin and the Non-tariff Barriers of the OIC Trade Preferential System (TPS-OIC).

At the same venue, the Rules of Origin of the TPS-OIC were presented for signature at the 2^nd Meeting of the Ministers of Commerce of the Member Countries, held on September 12^th.

In accordance with the response of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre has organised this course at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The course has been provided by the experts from the Statistic Division Government of Pakistan.

SESRIC co-organized

The International Conference on Islamic Capital Markets, Regulations, Products and Implementation

together with the IRTI-IDB and the Muamalat Institute, in Jakarta, Indonesia on August 27-29, 2007.

In accordance with the response of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Department of Statistics to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre has organised this course at the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Department of Statistics. The course has been provided by the experts from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics of Egypt.

In accordance with the response of the Maldives to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre has organised this course at the Statistics Division of the Ministry of Planning and National Development of Maldives. The course has been provided by the experts from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

SESRIC has participated in the

"Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference and Exhibition"

held on 11 - 13 July, 2007 in Hong Kong.

A presentation was made on "Academic Rankings of Universities in the OIC Member Countries".

The 22nd Session of the COMCEC held in Istanbul in November 2006 designated the SESRIC to take full responsibility as the coordinator institution for the exchange of views sessions of the COMCEC. The Session also designated “Micro-Credit Financing and Poverty Alleviation in Member States” as the theme for the Exchange of Views at the 23rd Session of the COMCEC, due to take place in November 2007 in Istanbul. In this connection SESRIC has organized a workshop on the theme “Micro-Credit Financing and Poverty Alleviation in OIC Member States”.

In accordance with the response of the Statistics Indonesia of the Republic of Indonesia to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre has organised this course at the Statistics Indonesia. The course has been provided by the experts from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

The Centre organised a special meeting with the Heads and representatives of the National Statistical Organisations (NSOs) of the OIC member countries on 28th June 2007 on the sidelines of the Second OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 27-30 June 2007.

SESRTCIC has partnered with OECD, SPO and TURKSTAT in

Second OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy in Istanbul, Turkey 27-30 June 2007

Brochure about the Istanbul World Forum

The Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, current Chairman of the Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers, has organized an International Conference on the Role of Tourism in the Economies of OIC Countries on 21-22 June 2007 in Baku.

The Conference beared scientific and research character and has been devoted to exchanges of views and opinions on how tourism influences economy and its spheres, as well as which concrete strategies should be applied to manage the sphere in an extremely successful way.

The Third Meeting of the Second Round of Trade Negotiations was held in Ankara on 19-22 June 2007 with the participation of delegates from 18 countries of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), 8 OIC member countries attended the meeting as observers and representatives of the OIC General Secretariat, COMCEC Coordination Office, ICDT, IDB and SESRTCIC.

First Islamic Conference of Health Ministers was held on 12 - 15 June 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, under the patronage of Dato’ Seri Abdullah Hj Ahmad Badawi, the Honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Chairman of the 10th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

In accordance with the response of the Statistics Directorate of Morocco to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre organised this course at the Statistics Directorate of Morocco. The course has been provided by an expert from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

The 23rd Meeting of the Follow-up Committee of the COMCEC was held on 29-31 May 2007 in Ankara, Turkey with the participation of 11 member countries of the Committee and Azerbaijan as observer.

The OIC General Secretariat and the following subsidiary, affiliated and specialised organs (SESRTCIC, ICDT, IDB, and ICCI) attended the Meeting. The representative of the UNIDO Regional Office in Ankara also attended the Meeting. Mr. Nabil Dabour and Mr. Suleyman İslamoğlu represented the Centre at the Meeting.

SESRTCIC has participated in

IFSD Forum 2007 on "Islamic Microfinance Development: Challenges and Initiatives"

which was held on 27 May, 2007 in Dakar, Senegal.

The role of microfinance in poverty alleviation and recent developments in microfinance activities were some of the subjects to be discussed thereat.

The Forum Web Site

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRTCIC) and the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) on 24 May 2007 in Ankara, Turkey. 

OIC Member Countries Discussed A Draft Strategic Plan for Tourism Development

The Republic of Turkey hosted and organized the 2nd Experts Group Meeting on Tourism Development in Istanbul on 9-11 May 2007 with the participant of 24 member countries, the General Secretariat of the OIC, COMCEC Coordination Office, SESRTCIC, ICDT, IRCICA, IUT, ISESCO and ICYF. The participants discussed and accepted the “Draft Strategic Plan for Tourism Development in the OIC Member States”, which has been proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey.

The Plan identifies certain means and modalities of implementation of the “Programme of Action” specified under the “Tourism” area of the Plan of Action to Strengthen Economic and Commercial Cooperation among Member States of the OIC. The Strategic Plan will be submitted to the 23rd Session of the COMCEC, which will be held in Istanbul in November 2007, for consideration by the OIC Ministries of Economic and Trade, and then for the 6th for Islamic Conference of Ministers of Tourism, which will be held in Damascus, Syria in 2008 for approval. Mr. Nabil Dabour, Senior Researcher, represented the Centre at the Meeting and presented a paper titled ““International Tourism in the OIC Countries: Prospects and Challenges”.

SESRTCIC in cooperation with the UNECA organized a special session on

Statistical Capacity Building  
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 4 May 2007

The Programme

Related Web Site

The Director General of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRTCIC) Dr. Savaş Alpay met with the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA Mr. Abdoulie Janneh at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on 1st May 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The objectives of the EGM are primarily to identify gaps in statistical capacity building across institutions in member countries and at the OIC level, and to find ways and means to coordinate data collection activities so as to harmonize and streamline statistical information for translating, monitoring and evaluating the goals and targets set in all the OIC/IDB initiatives. Additionally, it is also to develop a common framework for statistical capacity program.

Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Seniour Researcher at the Statistical Department of the Center attended the meeting and made a presentation titled " Statistical Capacity Building Activities for OIC Member Countries":

Presentation titled "Statistical Capacity Building Activities for OIC Member Countries" (.doc version) : scb_oic.doc

Presentation titled "Statistical Capacity Building Activities for OIC Member Countries" (.ppt version) : scb_oic.ppt

A seminar on the ranking of universities in the OIC member countries was held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, on 29-30 April 2007 under the title: "Global Repositioning of OIC Universities". The objectives of the seminar include identifying the methodology for the ranking of the OIC universities so that the OIC Ten-Year Programme of Action target of facilitating the placement of OIC universities among the top 500 universities in the world can be realized. Different aspects of various international university ranking systems have been discussed together with the national experiences in university ranking in several OIC member countries during the seminar with the participation of delegations from the member countries.

"Academic Rankings of Universities in the OIC Countries"

Nabil Mohammed, Seniour Researcher at the Economics Department of the Center and Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Seniour Researcher at the Statistics Department of the Center attended the Forum. Dr. Sıdıka Başçı made a presentation titled “ What is real progress?". Moreover Nabil Mohammed made two interventions where he described our training programme to the participants.

Conference Web Site

The Second Meeting of the Second Round of Trade Negotiations was held in Ankara on 27-30 March 2007 with the participation of delegates from 15 countries of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), 6 OIC member countries attended the meeting as observers and representatives of the OIC General Secretariat, ICDT, IDB, SESRTCIC and GCC.

A regional meeting on statistical training in Africa was organised on 12-13 March 2007 in Kampala, Uganda within the framework of the PARIS21 Task Team on Statistical Training and Human Resources. The meeting was organised jointly by the PARIS21 Secretariat, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Makerere University’s Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics with the logistical support of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

THE HEADS OF THE SUBSIDIARY, SPECIALISED AND AFFILIATED ORGANS DISCUSS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OIC TEN-YEAR PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Within the framework of the implementation of the OIC Ten-year Programme of Action, adopted by the 3rd extraordinary Islamic Summit, the OIC General Secretariat organised a meeting of the heads of the OIC subsidiary, specialised and affiliated organs in order to follow up the implementation of this Programme.

The 30th Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs of the OIC was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 3-5 March 2007 with the participation of delegates from thirty-seven member states and representatives of the OIC General Secretariat and its subsidiary, specialised and affiliated organs.

The Thirty-eighth Session of the UN Statistical Commission was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 27 February-2 March 2007. The Session, which marks the 60th Anniversary of the Committee, was attended by representatives from the 24 Member States of the Commission as well as observers from other Member States of the UN, representatives of organisations of the UN system and observers from inter-governmental, non-governmental and other organisations active in international statistical work. Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Senior Researcher represented the Centre thereat.

The Ninth Session of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) was held in New York on 26 February 2007. Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Senior Researcher represented the Centre thereat.

In accordance with the response of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Centre’s questionnaire on statistical capacity building, the Centre organised this course at the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The course was provided by an expert from the Turkish Statistical Institute in Turkey.

SESRTCIC ORGANISES A TRAINING COURSE ON LABOUR STATISTICS AND DATA ANALYSIS IN YEMEN

Within the framework of statistical capacity building for the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in the OIC member countries, the SESRTCIC has organised a training course on “Labour Statistics and Statistical Data Analysis” on 18-21 February 2007 in Sanaa, Republic of Yemen. Training was supervised by an expert from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the course was attended by 15 participants from the Yemeni Central Statistics Organisation.

SESRTCIC partnered with KNSO and OECD in the

World Forum Regional Pre-Conference for South and East Asia
“Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies”
8 - 9 February 2007, South Korea

Conference Web Site

Conference Conclusions

SESRTCIC ORGANIZES A MEETING WITH NATIONAL STATISTICAL OFFICES IN OIC AFRICAN COUNTRIES

The SESRTCIC organized on 17 January 2007 a special meeting for the delegates of the African OIC member countries on the sidelines of the 2007 Africa Symposium on Statistical Development, which was held in Kigali, Rwanda, on 15-19 January 2007. Representatives of 16 member countries, namely Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Tunisia, and the UN Economic commission for Africa (UNECA) attended the Meeting. Dr. Savaş Alpay, Director General, and Ms. Sevgi Reçberoğlu, researcher represented the Centre thereat.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the National Institute for Statistics in Rwanda, and Statistics South Africa co-organised the 2007 Africa Symposium on Statistical Development: Africa Counts: “Towards a Complete Enumeration of the African Population during the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses”. The Symposium was held in Kigali, Rwanda, on 15-19 January 2007 and attended by heads of National Statistical Offices in Africa, heads of Census Offices in African NSOs, and regional and international organisations. Dr. Savaş Alpay, Director General, and Ms. Sevgi Reçberoğlu, researcher represented the Centre thereat.

SESRTCIC CO-ORGANIZES THE OECD WORLD FORUM’S REGIONAL CONFERENCE FOR AFRICA

The SESRTCIC has co-organised the OECD World Forum’s Regional Conference for Africa: Building Capacity to Measure and Forster the Progress of Societies on 14 January 2007 in Kigali, Rwanda. The Conference, which was attended by almost 50 delegates from African countries and international organizations, constitutes one of the regional pre-conferences of the OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy, to be held in Istanbul on 27-30 June 2007. Dr. Savaş Alpay, Director General, and Ms. Sevgi Reçberoğlu, researcher represented the Centre thereat.