ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has said the OIC member states need to adopt an integrated approach for simplification of their custom procedures and modernization of related legislation.

Speaking at inaugural session of a workshop on "Trade and Transport of Facilitation among OIC member states", here on Tuesday, the minister said "the use of latest information and communication technology by OIC member countries would lead to boost trade among them".

He said the OIC trade facilitation efforts should not take place in isolation because it needed linkages with the rest of the world particularly with the efforts of the international organization to harmonize and simplify the procedure and the transportation system.

"The information sharing among OIC members is at a very low level and there is a need to develop and improve cross border e-commerce transactions." He announced that Pakistan was holding Expo 2005 and intended to hold Conference of the OIC Commerce Ministers simultaneously from February 2-5, 2005.

The OIC trade ministers should interact more often in order to develop a common vision for increasing trade among the member countries, he added. He said the OIC should also consider initiating negotiation on an Intra OIC Transit Trade Agreement that would facilitate trade among the Muslim countries.

The commerce minister said the recommendation of this workshop would be presented before the 20th meeting of the COMCEC scheduled in November and would become the foundation stone for an overall OIC policy for Trade and Transport Facilitation.

OIC states form 20 per cent of the world population and their share in the world exports is only 8.3 per cent, which includes petroleum and petroleum products. Mr Humayun said the cross border trade was a cumbersome and complicated process as it involved a number of organizations and entities, each having its own set of formalities, which caused hurdles in the smooth flow of trade.

The business community is faced with the challenge of not only the high tariff barriers but also the transportation costs, complicated documentation procedures, delays at the borders and the resultant loss in the competitiveness of their goods, he added.

He said UNCTAD has estimated that the direct and indirect cost of these procedures relating to trade transaction is around 7 to 10 per cent of the total value of the world trade. -APP