Muslim countries will establish a preferred trading bloc by the end of this year to bridge the wide gap between oil-rich and poor nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said.
“This is an important first step towards the larger goal of greater economic integration among the OIC countries,” the group’s head, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, told an OIC trade forum in Putrajaya, outside the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
He added that the vast economic disparities among the 57 OIC members is one of the biggest challenges facing the organization.
The OIC includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait — which together have 700 billion barrels of oil reserves. It also includes poor countries such as Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh.
Badawi said the OIC is negotiating to set up a preferential trading system to expand trade with each other.
Morocco also called upon the OIC to use the trade accord as the basis for a free trade area.
The Islamic Development Bank also said that the OIC may decide to create an international Islamic trading firm, with an initial paid-up capital of $1 billion.
Malaysia also wants the IDB to set up a $10 billion Islamic bond fund for infrastructure in another attempt to close the gap between rich and poor Muslim nations.