October 16, 2003	Thursday	Sha'aban 19, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 15: The Muslim world must make its economic policies more market-friendly if it wants to overcome economic deprivation, President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday.

His call at a business forum ahead of an Organization of Islamic Conference summit on Thursday, was echoed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who urged Muslim nations to increase their prosperity through industrialization.

Gen Musharraf called for a joint economic and business commission consisting of top officials and businessmen to speed up intra-OIC trade.

“This commission should be given nine months to complete its task,” he said and proposed that a special public-private economic summit be convened next year to take up the recommendations by the commission.

Following 9/11, Gen Musharraf said, growing anger and a feeling of deprivation in Muslim societies were fueling extremism and militancy, which further diverted resources from economic development.

Income levels, growth rates, human and technological development are “disappointingly low” in the Muslim world, widening the gap with western nations, he said.

“The GDP of the entire Ummah is roughly $1.4 trillion while that of Japan alone is $4.5 billion. The highest GDP of a Muslim country is $185 billion while that of tiny European countries with no natural resources is above $200 billion,” the president noted.

The OIC attracted hardly $15 billion worth of foreign investment each year, compared to $50 billion in China alone, he pointed out and added that only six countries accounted for more than half of OIC income and 22 out of the world’s 49 least developed countries were in the OIC.

“The starting point for achieving growth has to be the reform of our domestic economic policies. Unless our policies are market-friendly and pro-business, it will be hard for us to promote intra-OIC trade or investment,” he said.

“The key ares of reform of domestic policies include foreign investment laws, tax and trade regimes, currency and exchange control systems, corporate governance, stock exchanges and the judiciary.”

He urged the OIC to enhance cooperation with other regional economic groupings and proposed intra-OIC ventures in the areas of energy, agri-business, financial services, information and communication technology.

He said instead of dissipating energies on too many sectors and industries, a cluster of industries should be identified for focused attention in promoting intra-OIC ventures.

Gen Musharraf identified lack of institutional framework for implementation and involvement of Muslim businesses and private sector as the reasons for failure of past attempts for enhancing cooperation.

He said affiliated agencies of OIC such as IDB and Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industries must be involved in the restructuring of OIC.

INDUSTRIALIZATION: Dr Mahathir, who will retire as the Malaysian premier at the end of this month after 22 years in office, asked Muslim countries to industrialize and pool their resources to become a big market.

“We missed the industrial revolution completely and we are still not doing much to catch up. While we dilly-dally, the world of business is moving fast,” he warned. But he urged Muslim companies to “avoid greed like a plague” and called for the establishment of Muslim business schools to teach ethical trade practices based on Islamic principles.

“Going to war and colonizing other countries in order to secure markets and resources should be rejected totally by us,” he added.—Agencies