2^nd WIEF – ISLAMABAD

The second World Islamic Economic Forum bore a more confident theme of “Unleashing the Potential of Emerging Markets”. Held in Islamabad, Pakistan from 5-7th November 2006, the 2nd Forum attracted more than 600 participants from various countries in the Muslim and non-Muslim world.

The event was inaugurated by the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz and the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Among other prominent personalities present were the former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, Former Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, the former President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, Ali Al-Naimi.

Some of the key issues addressed in the second Forum included strategies to jumpstart economic development and enhance competitiveness in the Muslim world, creating successful entrepreneurs in the global marketplace, identifying new opportunities in the information, telecommunication and infrastructure industries, the prospects for public-private partnerships and leveraging the global supply chain. The second Forum also saw the establishment of the WIEF Young Leaders Network (WYN), the third initiative of the World Islamic Economic Forum, aimed at gathering young entrepreneurs and young professionals for business networking and to create programmes to enhance value-added economic activities for the Muslim world.

Session Topics:

• Challenges of Social Development to Islamic World
• The Way Forward for Muslim Economic Renaissance
• Enhancing Global Competitiveness and Trade Among Muslim Countries
• Keynote Leadership Panel: ” Challenges for Muslim Leadership in a Globalized World”
• Successful Entrepreneurs In A Global Marketplace
• Opportunities in infrastructure Development – Public –Private Partnership for Successful Implementation
• Opportunities in Information, Telecommunications an Outsourcing – New Growth Models
• Managing Energy Demands: The New Global Energy Paradigm
• Leveraging the Global Supply Chain for Competitive Advantage and Value Creation
• Tourism – The Next Growth Industry
• Diversifying Investment Portfolio for Profit and Security

WIEF Muslim Women Roundtable 2006

• “Unleashing the Potential of Muslim Women”

• Dato’ Nazir Razak
  Group Chief Executive, CIMB Berhad Malaysia, Malaysia
• Mr. Omar Ayub Khan
  Minister of State for Finance, Pakistan
• Lord Michael Hastings
  Global Head – Corporate Social Responsibility, KPMG International, United Kingdom
• Mr. Omar Mustapha
  Managing Principal & Director, Ethos & Company, Malaysia
• Mr. Ghouse Akbar
  Akbar Group of Companies, Pakistan
• H.E. S. Musharraf
  First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• H.E. Hina Rabbani Khar
  Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Pakistan
• HRH Princess Zahra Aga Khan
  Aga Khan Development Network, France
• Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz
  Governor, Central Bank of Malaysia, Malaysia
• Dr. Shamshad Akhtar
  Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan
• Dato’ Dr. Norraesah Mohamad
  Chairman, World Islamic Businesswomen Network, WIEF, Malaysia
• Ms. Kashmala Tariq
  Member of the National Assembly, Pakistan
• Ms. Mahreen Khan
  Media Advertiser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pakistan
• The Hon. Tun Musa Hitam
  Chairman WIEF & Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Malaysia
• H.E. Dr Ahmed Mohamed Ali
  President, Islamic Development Bank
• H.E. Shaukat Aziz
  Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• H.E. Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
  Chairman of the OIC & Prime Minister of Malaysia
• H.E. Pervez Musharraf
  President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• H.E. Bob Hawke
  Former Prime Minister of Australia
• H.E. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
  Former President of Sri Lanka
• Mr. John Defterios
  Group Vice President for Content and Media Services, FBC Media, United Kingdom
• H.E. Sheikh Saleh Kamel
  Chairman, Dallah Al Baraka Group & President, Islamic Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• Sir Anwar Pervez represented by Mr.Chowdry
  Chairman, President & CEO, Best Way Group, United Kingdom
• Mr. Farooq Kathwari
  Chairman, Ethan Allen Interiors, USA
• Mr. Syed Babar Ali
  Advisor, Packages LTS, Pakistan
• Mr. Salahuddin Kasem Khan
  Chairman, Aktel, Bangladesh
• Mr. Selcuk Erden
  Regional Manager, Southern Eurasia Region, The Coca Cola Company
• H.E. Dr Naguib Sawiris
  Chairman&CEO, ORASCOM Telecom, Egypt
• Mr. Tanri Abeng
  Chairman, Telkom Indonesia, Indonesia
• Mr. Yusof Annuar Yaacob
  Chief Executive Officer, TM International Sdb Bhd, Malaysia
• Mr. Leonidas Georgiades
  Director Teradata Solution, Middle East & Africa, NBC Corporation
• Mr. Safi Qereshey
  President and CEO, Sky line Ventures, USA
• Mr. Arve Johansen
  SEVP Telenor Group
• H.E. Dr. Anwar-ul-Haq-Ahadi
  Finance Minister, Afganistan
• H.E. Mohamed Ali Alabbar
  Chairman, Descon, Pakistan
• Mr. Vince Harris
  Regional Managing Director, Singapore, Asia International Power plc. & Former Managing Director, Hubco
• Hirashima
  Professor Emeritus Meji Gakuin University & S.I. Project Formulation Advisor, Pakistan Office , JICA
• Dr. Marcus Fedder
  Chairman, Pakistan Infrastructure Fund, United Kingdom
• H.E. I. Ali Al-Niami
  Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia
• Dato Paduka Timothy Ong
  Chairman, Brunei Economic Development Board, Brunei
• Mr. Jean Jacques Mosconi represented by Mr. Lorienti
  Senior Vice President, Strategy & Development, TOTAL, Pakistan
• Tan Sri Dato Sri Mohd Hassan Merican
  President & CEO, Petronas, Malaysia
• Mr. Salman Zaheer
  Sector Manager, Energy, USA
• Mr. Nejib Zaafrani
  Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances, Middle East, Caspian & South Asia, Shell Exploration
• Mr. Mukhtar Ahmed
  Advisor to Prime Minister for Energy
• Mr. Thomas Martin Huebner
  Chief Executive Officer, Metro Cash-n-Carry
• Mr. Ian Buchanan
  Former Chairman, Booz Allen & Hamilton (Australia) Ltd, Australia
• Mr. Saquib H. Shirazi
  Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Honda, Pakistan
• Mr. Ehsan Malik
  Chief Executive Officer, Unilever, Pakistan
• Mr. Mirzhan Mahathir
  Chairman, Konsortium Logistik Berhad, Malaysia
• Mr. Ali Riza Arslan
  Vice Chairman, MUSIAD, Turkey
• Dato’ Dr. Munir Majid
  Chairman, Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia
• Mr. Ebrahim Pathel
  Chief Executive Officer, TransAfrix Holdings, South Africa
• Mr. Sameh Sawiris reps. By H.E. Naguib Sawiris
  Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board, Orascom Hotels & Development
• Mr. Sultan Allana
  Chairman, Habib Bank Pakistan, Limited, Pakistan
• Mr. Tariq Kirmani
  Chief Executive, Pakistan Internaional Airlines, Pakistan
• Mr. Francis Rozario
  CEO, Asia Financial Holdings Pte Limited, Singapore
• Mr. Farhan Sharaff
  Chief Investment Officer, MJX, USA
• Mr. Arif Naqvi
  Executive Vice-Chairman & CEO, Abraaj Capital Limited, UAE
• Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh
  Former Privatization Minister, Pakistan
• Dr. Ishrat Hussain
  Chairman National Reforms Commission & Ex-Governor , State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan
• Dato’ Dr. Michael Yeoh
  CEO, WIEF & Asian Strategy & Lidership Institute, Malaysia
• Mr. Salman Shah
  Adviser to the Prime Miniter of Pakistan on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Statistics, Pakistan

The 2ND OIC Business Forum held in Kuala Lumpur on 7-8 October 2004 hereby adopts the following Declaration:

We propose that the governments of the OIC member states, with the involvement of the private sector, to continuously engage themselves with the ultimate goal of establishing the Islamic Common Market in stages. In this endeavour, OIC regional and sub-regional economic cooperation needs to be strengthened within a reasonable time-bound process.

We believe that there is an urgent need to redefine the relationship between the public and private sectors to make it relevant with time and responsive to the current global challenges.

We call upon the governments of OIC countries to play a more proactive role in business and economic development by taking concrete steps to 1) reduce administrative bottlenecks, 2) enhance labor laws, 3) facilitate the movement of people and capital 4) ensure greater accountability and transparency. We further encourage Muslim businessmen to uphold good business ethics and corporate governance.

We encourage greater intra-OIC investment by facilitating inflow of capital from capital-rich OIC countries to other OIC countries. We call for further development of the Islamic capital markets and financial instruments and expedite the cooperation among Stock Exchanges of OIC member states.

We propose further development of investment promotion policies of the individual governments that correspond to the respective national priorities of the OIC member states, including technology-sharing and transfer, infrastructure development, job creation and the diversification of export markets. We also believe that the OIC member states should continue to adopt flexible and business-friendly polices toward business people not only from OIC member states but also those from non-OIC member states.

We encourage both the governments and the private sectors to accelerate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate trade and investment. We believe that each member states should consider implementing a specific framework for developing a Knowledge Society by adopting the Action Plan of the World Summit on Information Society, Geneva, 2003. In realizing this, we propose greater emphasis on R&D cooperation among OIC member states through more proactive technology transfer, human resource exchanges, and technical assistance programs especially outsourcing from more developed member states to less developed ones. In this connection, we envisage the establishment of an ICT working group within the Forum to facilitate this idea regionally and sub-regionally.

We call upon the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to further enhance its services in resource mobilization and develop new trade financing instruments.

We reiterate the need for the formation of a Global Halal Standards Organization (GHSO) to establish an international standard for halal certification and labelling so as to facilitate trade among the OIC countries.

We encourage greater and more active participation of both the governments and the private sectors in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their respective countries and to facilitate SME cooperation among OIC member states.

We call on member states to encourage and facilitate the participation of the businesswomen in the economic development process of their respective economy. In view of the success of the 2nd OIC Business Forum, we propose to enlarge the OIC Business Forum so as to widen the participation to include academicians, NGOs and Muslim communities from non-OIC countries and accordingly we propose renaming the Forum as the World Islamic Economic Forum.

In adopting this Declaration, we recognise the need for an action-oriented programme of practical solutions to be implemented in a reasonable period of time.

We therefore request that this Declaration be submitted to the Chairman of the OIC for consideration of the OIC Economic Conference to be held from 23rd to 27th November 2004 in Istanbul.