The Islamic Center for Development of Trade (ICDT), part of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions to boost the economic capability and commercial exhibitions in the member countries. The signing ceremony took place at Jeddah International Exhibitions and Conventions Center, on the sidelines of the ongoing Food, Hotel and Propac Arabia 2008 Exhibition (FHP2008) which kicked off last Sunday. The secretary general of the OIC, professor Ekmeluddin Ihsanoglu, and the Chairman of Al- Harithy Company Shareef Muafaq Al-Harith signed the agreement in the presence of Allal Rashid, director general of ICDT in Casablanca, Morocco. Al-Harith said the agreement aims at more collaboration between the Islamic states to uplift the exchange of trade between the member countries. “This MoU is very big significant as it will enhance the role of commercial events and exhibitions that will serve as an effective bond between the products and the consumers. The ICDT is the branch of the OIC which deals with enhancing inter-investment between the Islamic countries,” Ihsanoglu noted. “Our new vision of commercial interaction and trades has been vividly stated at the Islamic Summit 2005 in Makkah. We have created new programs which exclusively focus on the commercial and economic exchange between the member countries which led to an 16 percent increase in the volumes of exchange in 2006 compared with only 10 percent in 2000,” Ihsanoglu added. He also urged OIC's Trade Negotiating Committee for establishing the trade preferential system among member countries of COMCEC to work on increasing the average up to 20 percent by the year 2015. “We will work together along with Al-Harithy Company throughout this agreement to organize scores of economical exhibitions to bring together the supply and demand under one umbrella,” Rashid added. __
