HAFEEZ CHAIRS INTRA-OIC TRADE MEETING AT KUALA LUMPUR

Islamabad, October 04, 2005

Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Federal Minister for Privatisation and Investment chaired a meeting on Promoting Intra-OIC Trade arranged by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Privatisation and Investment, says a message received from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia here today.

The meeting successfully deliberated on the constitution of Investment Promotion Teams to develop viable projects for Intra OIC Investment and as a result various teams were constituted with special focus to set up an information database on the various opportunities on Investment and trade available in the OIC countries, to identify the various privatisations being pursued by the OIC countries, explore the possibility of the formation of a company with Public Private Partnership, which could operate both as a knowledge as well as an investment institution an to identify Clusters with more potential for investment.

The meeting was a follow-up of the outcome of the OIC Economic Conference that was held in Istanbul, Turkey in Nov. 2004 in which Dr. Abdul Hafiz Shaikh presented the idea of having Joint Investment Promotion Teams for OIC.

The Meeting was attended by large number of leading businessmen and public sector representatives from the OIC countries including Mr. Mirzan Mahathir of Malaysia, a leading businessman & Chairman of World Islamic Economic Forum, Mr. Aqeel Al-Jassim, Secretary General Islamic Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Mr. M. Macky Hashim, Secretary General of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Faiz Muhammad Minister for Trade and Investment Bangladesh, Director Islamic Investment Bank, Mr. Majid Al Sayed Bader Al Refai, CEO of Unicorn Investment Bank, Bahrain, Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bokhari and Mr. Arif Habib.