Mr. İhsan Övüt, Secretary General and his accompanying delegation attended the 44th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which was hosted by the Republic of Cote d’Ivore and held in Abidjan the capital city of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, on 10-11 July 2017.
The Session – held under the theme (Youth, Peace, and Development in a World of Solidarity) – started with the handing over of the chairmanship of the CFM from Uzbekistan to Côte d’Ivoire and statements by Uzbekistan, Cote d’Ivoire, and the representatives of the African, Arab and Asian groups.
The meeting was opened by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire - Alassane Ouattara – In his opening statement, the President highlighted the solidarity between the Member States in addressing challenges, particularly terrorism and finding solutions to prevent youth radicalization, and the need to embed an economic, scientific and technological strategy under the OIC’s framework. He further affirmed the joint action to implement the OIC-2025 Program of Action, and urged the private sector in the Member States to invest in the African continent. Additionally, he stressed that the Palestinian cause, immigration and climate changes are priority issues.
The OIC Secretary General, Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, delivered a speech in which he emphasized that the unprecedented challenges and fast-paced developments around us today make it incumbent upon us, more than ever, to duly consider taking practical and positive steps to overcome some of the differences among and within some of our Member States by studying their causes and proffering appropriate solutions to them. The Secretary General expressed his confidence that dialogue, together with rational, wise and respectful negotiation with the other, as enshrined in the OIC Charter, may offer the fundamental guarantees for overcoming conflicts and differences and for achieving the stability that we aspire to in our Islamic world.
The meeting of the CFM was held for two days and numerous political, humanitarian, cultural, social, and economic issues in addition to science and technology discussed.
Some of the points regarding SMIIC included in the CFM Resolutions on Economic Affairs are as follows:
“Having noted the report on the activities of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC);
1. Urges the Member States to accede to the membership of SMIIC and to actively participate in its Technical Committees (TCs) and other technical activities of SMIIC organs such as metrology and accreditation;
2. Invites OIC Member States to adopt and use the OIC/SMIIC Standards as their national standards in order to aid the harmonization of standards and eliminate the technical barriers to trade among OIC Member States;
3. Calls upon OIC Member States who are using OIC/SMIIC Standards to officially adopt the standards according to SMIIC adoption guidelines and to be included in the SMIIC database;
4. Requests the Member States to engage in close cooperation with SMIIC and OIC Institutions in order to improve the quality infrastructure systems of the OIC Least Developed Countries (LDCs);
5. Calls upon the Member States to participate in the 5th OIC Halal Expo and Istanbul 2017 World Halal Summit to be held under the auspices of the Presidency of The Republic of Turkey on 23-25 November 2017, Istanbul which is organized in coordination with SMIIC General Secretariat and ICDT;
6. Invites all interested parties to consider to cooperate on halal standard and related issues with the SMIIC as the technically competent and authorized platform for these issues;
7. Further calls upon the International Islamic Fiqh Academy to support SMIIC and provide any necessary fatwa and advice particularly regarding halal issues;
8. Requests the Member States to participate and contribute to the various training programs conducted by SMIIC including: OIC/SMIIC Standards and OIC/SMIIC 1 Halal Food auditors training programs.
9. Invites IDB group to support SMIIC with training and programs in the fields of standards, metrology, accreditation and improvement in quality infrastructure.”
