Mr. İhsan Övüt, SMIIC Secretary General and his accompanying delegation attended the 45th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which was held in Dhaka the capital city of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, on 05-06 May 2018.

The Session – held under the theme (The Islamic Values of Sustainable Peace, Solidarity and Development) – started with the handing over of the chairmanship of the CFM from Côte d’Ivoire to Bangladesh and statements by the Chair of Islamic Summit (Turkey), Cote d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, OIC Secretary General and the representatives of the African, Arab and Asian groups.

The OIC Information Department has broadcast a documentary about the situation of displaced Rohingya refugees in camps along the Bangladeshi-Myanmar border and near Cox's Bazaar. The film included clips of statements by the Secretary-General and the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister and first hand testimonies.

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, which works on the specialized areas of the standardization, metrology and accreditation activities under the mandate of OIC as the sole intergovernmental organization;
2. Requests the member states to actively participate in its Technical Committees (TCs) and other technical activities of SMIIC Councils;
3. 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;
4. Calls upon OIC member states, who are using OIC/SMIIC Standards to officially adopt the standards according to SMIIC adoption guidelines and include in the SMIIC database;
5. 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);
6. Calls upon the member states to participate in the 6th OIC Halal Expo and World Halal Summit 2018 to be held under the auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey on 29 November - 2 December 2018 in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, which will be organized in coordination with SMIIC and Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT);
7. Invites all interested parties to cooperate on halal standards, certification, accreditation and related issues with the SMIIC as the only technically competent and authorized platform of the OIC ;
8. Agrees on the need for the establishment of a global halal conformity assessment system under SMIIC in order to provide a basis for the mutual recognition of halal certificates between accreditation bodies.
9. Further calls upon the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) to support SMIIC and provide it with any necessary fatwa and advice, particularly regarding halal issues;
10. 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 programmes;
11. Invites IDB Group and related OIC institutions to support SMIIC with training and programmes in the fields of standardization and improvement in quality infrastructure.