The Review Meeting of the Trade Negotiating Committee was held in Ankara from the 17th to the 19th of June 2008 with the participation of delegates from 16 countries of the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC), 7 OIC member countries attended the meeting as observers. SESRIC represented the OIC General Secretariat and representatives of COMCEC Coordination Office, ICDT, IDB, SESRIC and WAEMU also attended the meeting.

The Tourism Statistics Workshop was held on 16-18 June 2008 in Ankara, Turkey at Gazi Park Hotel. It was jointly organized by SESRIC, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Statistical Institute and World Tourism Organization. 36 participants from ten OIC countries, namely Azerbaijan, Brunei, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey attended the workshop.

11th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis was held at Marina Congress Center, Helsinki, Finland, with the theme “Future of Global Economy”. The goal of the conference was to promote the exchange of ideas among economists conducting quantitative analysis of global economic issues.

The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, one of the world’s best known series of conferences on development, took place at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town (South Africa) on 9-11 June 2008. It was jointly organized by the World Bank and the National Treasury of South Africa. Many participants from the OIC Member Countries attended the Conference.

The Centre organised a training programme on “Quality in Statistics” at the State Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Tajikistan on May 26-28, 2008. The programme was provided by an expert from the Turkish Statistical Institute in Turkey and was attended by 20 staff members of the State Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The Centre organised a training programme on “Agriculture Statistics and Food Safety Analysis” at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Uganda on May 26-27, 2008. The programme was provided by an expert from the Turkish Statistical Institute in Turkey and was attended by 15 staff members of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Uganda.

Within the framework of the implementation of the OIC Ten-year Programme of Action, adopted by the 3rd extraordinary Islamic Summit, the OIC General Secretariat organised a meeting of the heads of the OIC subsidiary organs, specialised and affiliated institutions in order to follow up the implementation of this Programme.

The 31st Session of the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs of the OIC was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 20-21 May 2008 with the participation of delegates from various member states and representatives of the OIC General Secretariat and its subsidiary, specialised and affiliated organs.

The 24th Meeting of the Follow-up Committee of the COMCEC was held on 13-15 May 2008 in Antalya, Turkey with the participation of 10 member countries of the Committee. Iraq, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen also attended the Meeting as observers. Malaysia attended the Meeting as the Chairman of the 10th Islamic Summit. The OIC General Secretariat and the following subsidiary, affiliated and specialised organs (SESRIC, ICDT, IDB, ICCI, IUT, ITFC, OISA and ICYF-DC) attended the Meeting. The SESRIC was represented at the meeting by its Director General Dr. Savaş Alpay and Mr. Nabil Dabour, Senior Researcher/Acting Director of the Research Department.

The First Meeting of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the OIC Cotton Cooperation Programme was held on 12 May 2008 in Antalya, Republic of Turkey.

The 24th Session of the General Assembly of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and the 5th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chamber was held on 24 April 2008 in Jeddah 2008.

Considering the importance of e-tourism technologies and the status of the OIC member countries in this regard, a proposal for organising an International Seminar on “Development of E-Tourism Technologies in Islamic Countries” was discussed in the 5th Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (ICTM) held in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan in September 2006. In this connection, the said Seminar was organised by the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology of Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Dhaka, in collaboration with Islamic Development Bank (IDB), OIC General Secretariat, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Civil Aviation & Tourism of Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, and held at the campus of the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22-24 April 2008.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organised the First Meeting of the OIC_SWG on March 25- 26, 2008 at its Headquarters in Jeddah. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the OIC General Secretariat, SESRIC, ICCI, ICDT and IDB. The Inaugural session was addressed by the Vice President of the IDB, Dr. Amadou Boubacar Cisse and the Director General of the SESRIC, Dr. Savas Alpay. Then a presentation entitled “Setting the Scene: The Big Picture” was presented by, Dr. Abdullateef Bello, the Division Chief, Statistics (Data Resource Center, IDB).

The agenda for the 11th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference held in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14, 2008 focused on four items:

• Implementation of the OIC Ten-Year Program of Action
• Adoption of the revised OIC Charter
• Two brainstorming sessions on economic cooperation among Member States especially African
• Knowledge-sharing among Member States.

The 39th Session of the UN Statistical Commission was held at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, on February 26-29, 2008. The Commission elected South Africa as the Chair of the Statistical Commission and Finland, Colombia, Oman and Hungary as the members of the Bureau. During the working Sessions, the Commission discussed the reports prepared by the designated institutions on employment statistics, education statistics, national accounts, tourism statistics, industrial statistics, trade statistics, health statistics, informal sector statistics and environment statistics.

The 11th Meeting of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) was held in New York, at the United Nations Headquarters, on February 25, 2008. The Director of the United Nations Statistics Division and Co-chair of the committee, Mr. Paul Cheung, welcomed the participants. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Pieter Everaers, Director of Agriculture and Environment Statistics, Statistical Cooperation of Eurostat and also Co-chair of the Committee.

The 3rd Core Group Meeting on OIC University Ranking was held on February 21-22, 2008 in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. H. Hakan Eryetli and Mr. Esat Bakımlı represented the Centre thereat.

The Centre organised a training course on “Census and Survey Processing System (CSPRO) & Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)” at the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Sudan on February 4-6, 2008. The course was provided by an expert from the Department of Statistics in Jordan and was attended by 12 staff members of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Sudan.

The 1st Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of ECO Member Countries was held on January 28-29, 2008, in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran and was attended by the ECO Deputy Secretary-General, Heads of National Statistical Offices of the ECO member countries, the representatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), the Deputies, Director Generals and Senior Experts of the Statistical Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Dr. Sıdıka Başcı represented SESRIC thereat.