From: Yona F Maro
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East Africa Jobs www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Jobs in Tanzania www.utumishitz.blogspot.com

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Your Excellencies,
Honourable Heads of Delegation,
Distinguished Delegates.

It is a distinct honour and a great privilege for me to address the First Ministerial Review Conference of the Turkey-Africa Partnership here in Istanbul, as a hub for regional and international cooperation

Allow me, to express my sincere appreciation to the Government of Turkey for this invitation. I am among those of us that had the opportunity to participate in the 2008 session. As such, I am indeed a happy observer of te many pertinent activities that were realized since then and the significant distance that has been covered.

Africa is going through a transformation. Correct, some shortcomings are still there. Death rates of infants are still unacceptably high.

Poverty, malnutrition, insufficient education continue to be problematic issues. But those statistics are moving rapidly in the right direction. Growth rates are now strikingly high in many African countries, with some OIC members among them. And this comes at a time when world economy continues to remain in shambles.

Household income is above US$ 3000 for about 60 million Africans now. The Economist just reported this figure will surpass the 100 million mark in year 2015. Computer usage and non-personal digital technology are irreversibly in the grain of African business practices.

Turkish-African cooperation is a win-win exercise for all sides. With members in the African continent, as well as non-member countries in Africa, the OIC will continue to assist with this positive exchanges at all opportunities.

For the OIC this occasion is significant in many respects. It provides an auspicious occasion to monitor retrospectively some recent activities carried out by the Organization to build up regional cooperation and partnership. It affords us the opportunity to salute the distinctive efforts of the Government of Turkey, considering that the OIC accords much significance to South-South cooperation. This occasion provides an appropriate reminder on the need for our collective response to address the challenges facing our countries, foremost of which are inadequate investment, low utilization of capacity, chronic unemployment, and slow growth, among others.

In this regard I am glad to note that, since the elaboration of its Ten Year Programme of Action, the issues of poverty alleviation and socio-economic renewal have engaged the attention of our Organization. This is as we seek to implement the provisions of the OIC blueprint for greater economic cooperation among our Member States and for improved welfare for the vulnerable segment of our populations.

Notwithstanding the total Gross Domestic Product of OIC countries, which is estimated at about 5 trillion US Dollars, 21 OIC Member States are among Least Developed Countries, where most of the people endure on less than 2 US Dollars a day. Equally significant is the fact that most OIC countries export basically agricultural commodities and therefore are subject to often unstable global commodity and energy markets. Moreover, many artificial barriers are unfortunately placed on the free flow of trade across neighboring countries and communities often due to extraneous non-trade reasons and this of course leads to often negative Balances of Trade.

In order to promote free trade, the OIC for her part initiated a Trade Preferential System and three agreements under this scheme have since entered into force. It is expected that the eventual removal of the many tariff and non-tariff obstacles to intra-OIC trade would enable OIC Member States to increase their trade exchanges to 20% in 2015. Already, intra-OIC trade currently stands at 17% up from 14% in 2004.

Of course, such increase would come along in parallel to a corresponding increase among al African countries, members and non- members, as well.

At this juncture, I wish to seize this opportunity to encourage all our decision-makers to give due priority to the implementation of the OIC Trade Preferential Scheme, which offers significant potential to expand our national economies and create jobs for our increasing populations.

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

A major component of our economic cooperation strategy is to create an appropriate link between economic growth and social development, so as to address the spate of poverty and hunger in a number of OIC countries.

In that vein, the Special Programme for the Development of Africa, which has a capital outlay of 12 billion US Dollars, has so far disbursed an amount of 3 billion US Dollars on various social projects in the domain of education, health, housing, and women and youth empowerment.

These funding facilities are aimed at developing human capital, in order to complement the economic advantages which are derived from the development of infrastructure and strategic commodities.

Let me, at this point, emphasize that our new strategy on creating special regional projects is to ensure that all regional economic organisations within the and hopefully in tandem to the OIC family are mobilized to act as building blocks for our development agenda. This approach will assist in preempting duplication, enhancing synergy and coordination, and promoting efficient and timely implementation of our common projects.

I am glad to note that the on-going alliance between the OIC and the African Union on the execution of the OIC Dakar-Port Sudan Railway Project will herald the beginning of fruitful collaboration between the OIC and African Union. I, shortly and in essence, I have no doubt that the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit will provide a practical example of enhancement through increased investments, trade and exchanges as opposed to aid donation alone.

Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

As we consolidate our actions on the economic front, we are convinced that no development can take place in an atmosphere where there is no peace, stability, security, accountability, transparency, justice or human rights. It is against this background that this meeting is also dwelling on issues relating to democracy and good governance, with a view to provide a political and economic environment conducive for growth and sustainable development. On our part, we have scaled up our activities in the area of election monitoring as we seek to encourage a smooth transition of power and the consolidation of democracy in our Member States. OIC leaders must further strive to address such problems related to poverty, corruption, diseases and youth unemployment through the right policies and the judicious application of resources.

Closely related to this is the OIC emergency response mechanism for intervention in disaster zones. Let me commend the fraternal and persistent support of the Government of Turkey during the recent and ongoing famine in Somalia. Thanks to this support, the OIC was able to secure financial pledges to the tune of 350 million US Dollars from Governments and has continued to play a leading role among various international players in relief efforts in Somalia.

I am convinced that, given the abundance of huge natural resources in the OIC countries, we can achieve the objectives of transforming our economies for the interest of our peoples, if we persist in mobilizing the energies of our populations, collectively encompassing the private sector and civil society groups. Certainly, the entrepreneurial spirit of the growing numbers of our youthful population as well as our common purpose and destiny, should propel us to greater heights.

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