The 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), which began on Nov. 20 and is scheduled to end today, provided an opportunity to bring together leaders and representatives of the Islamic world and weigh current problems in the resource-rich Muslim geographies with solutions for the future. Attending the meeting yesterday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged all members to take concrete action following the consultations of the COMCEC meetings. He urged the countries to utilize their human and natural resources to become a production base, with economic, technological, cultural development plans and enhanced trade relations among member states.

Serving as a central forum to address the common development problems of the Muslim populated countries, this year's COMCEC meeting in Istanbul facilitated discussions and consultations on how to resolve the looming problems in the Islamic region torn by political upheavals that extend its impacts on economic, social and cultural areas. During his address, President Erdoğan particularly emphasized the necessity to appropriately seize the expansive resources with which the Islamic geography is bestowed.

"Our duty is to render the geography of Muslim countries into a production base with economic, technological and cultural development initiatives. In that regard, we need to find ways to make better use of platforms like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] and COMCEC to overcome the existing difficulties."

In order to enhance the effectiveness of intra-COMCEC coordination and partnership and introduce more efficient solutions, President Erdoğan highlighted that the project financing mechanism under COMCEC fosters a culture of cooperation for ensuring solutions to common problems.

Introduced as a financing mechanism by the COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO) in 2013, the COMCEC Project Funding (CPF) finance projects submitted by member countries and relevant OIC Institutions realized the strategic objectives and outcomes of the COMCEC Strategy. The CPF aims at realization of policy recommendations adopted by the COMCEC Ministerial Sessions, enhancing solidarity and multilateral cooperation among member countries as well as increasing institutional and human capacity in those countries while calling for a more effective use of the mechanism.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the projects aimed at improving trade should be featured, and that the preferential trade system, which has long occupied the country's agenda, should be brought into force urgently in this regard.

"Each day we are late to take a step on this matter is a huge loss for us. I invite all relevant member states to act in this direction. I also give importance to the projects of the Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries (SMIIC), which we hosted in Turkey," Erdoğan said, explaining that the institute carries out serious activities on standards in many areas, especially in the determination of halal standards in member countries and all over the world.

"We are trying to make the highest contribution to these studies. We established the Halal Accreditation Authority (HAK) in this context," he continued. "We also expect member countries to actively participate in the committee's activities. We should be able to improve our ability to solve our own problems while increasing our trade and investments."

Erdoğan recalled that during his speech at the 13th Islamic Summit last year, he urged the need to develop a mechanism for resolving disputes over investments and trade between member countries, noting that he is focusing on the importance of establishing the OIC Arbitration Center for this purpose.

Pointing out that he closely follows the projects carried out jointly by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (ICCIA) in this direction, President Erdoğan said he believed that the center to be established will have a structure that will quickly resolve the disputes over trade and investment with minimal cost and fair solutions.

Meanwhile, according to the data obtained from COMCEC, intra-OIC trade value and share have shown a remarkable ascent. The nominal value of the total intra-OIC trade has grown from $271.45 billion in 2005, to $694,23 billion in 2015. The share of intra-OIC trade in total OIC trade rose from 15.50 percent to 20.33 percent in the same period.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he hoped the studies on the establishment of the "Real Estate Securities Exchange Initiative for the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) Member States" will be completed soon, noting that they will be pleased to offer the serious experience and infrastructure existing on the Borsa Istanbul to member states.

According to the deliberations at the 2014 and 2015 COMCEC meetings, the real estate sector is considered to represent a new value to harness via capital markets through a joint real estate securities exchange initiative. Following the Forum's 2015 Real Estate Report, by an invitation to the Forum Member Authorities, by the Forum Secretariat in December 2015, a Real Estate Working Group was established within the Forum's Capacity Building Task Force. The Working Group conducted a questionnaire for COMCEC member countries to elaborate on the current market and regulatory landscape and the willingness of COMCEC member authorities for a joint real estate and/or real estate securities exchange initiative. Based on the findings of the survey, the Capital Markets Board (CMB) and Turkey as the chair of the Capacity Building Task Force have drafted a Real Estate Securities Exchange Initiative for the COMCEC Member States Report.