The 39th Ministerial Meeting of the COMCEC was held under the auspices of H.E. Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN, President of the Republic of Türkiye, on 4-5 December with the participation of over 500 delegates, 35 of which were Ministers and Deputy Ministers from 51 countries that are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and 24 international organizations. Throughout the meeting, 48 bilateral talks were carried out between Member Countries, international organizations and private sector representatives.
The Ministerial Meeting commenced on 4 December 2023 with the opening speech of the H.E. Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN, President of the Republic of Türkiye. Following His Excellency President, respectively, OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha and the Heads of Delegation of Qatar, Senegal and Kazakhstan on behalf of the three geographical regions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation delivered their speeches. In addition, the Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank, Mr. Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser made a speech at the opening session.
The theme of this year’s COMCEC Ministerial Exchange of Views Session was determined as “Improving E-commerce Capacities of the OIC Member Countries” in order to share experiences and discuss cooperation opportunities among Member Countries.
Before the COMCEC Ministerial Exchange of Views Session Mr. Abdelhamid MAMDOUH, former Director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division of the WTO, delivered a keynote speech on recent trends in e-commerce, the rise of digital services trade and the role of trade agreements in non-trade issues.
In the Ministerial Exchange Session, chaired by H.E. Vice President Mr. Cevdet YILMAZ, the Ministers and Heads of Delegations of the Member Countries made statements and interventions on their country experiences with respect to the theme of the Ministerial Exchange of Views Session. In this framework, they emphasized the actions taken to address the main challenges faced by the Member Countries in e-commerce and digitalization as well as their efforts to strengthen the necessary infrastructure in this domain. They also stressed that cooperation in the field of information technologies would make a great contribution to achieving considerable progress in this crucial field.
