The importance of developing the tourism sector to the income of member nations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was stressed by a Kuwaiti Finance Ministry official on Friday.
Tourism is also a major source of income for both low and high income nations, and the roles of both the public and private sectors are important on this, said Assistant Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Sami Al-Saqubi.
At the conclusion of the OIC’s Standing Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation (COMCEC) talks, he added that of the main recommendations set forth by the meeting was praising the efforts of International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation chief Walid Al-Wuhaib, in funding of COMCEC programmes worth USD 5.1 billion in 2014.
COMCEC has underlined the importance of contributions from all OIC member nations in the adoption of the 10-point working plan, and committing to the new COMCEC strategy aimed at increasing trade exchange amongst them, he added.
Due to these measures, the Kuwaiti official expected trade exchange to grow from a current 18 percent to 21 percent in 2015.
Challenges facing Muslim nations, in light of global economic difficulties, on this matter have been outlined, he said, such as tackling poverty – whereby 21 member nations out of a total 57 suffer a lack of growth.
In reference to COMCEC’s future plans, he said that the committee has also adopted the post-2015 development plan, which will focus on improving basic services.
Kuwait’s delegation at the talks was headed by Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh.
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
