Bangladesh to focus Muslim world's challenges, share success stories at OIC Dhaka meet

Bangladesh, which is hosting the 45th OIC foreign ministers’ meet, will focus on the challenges the Muslim world is currently facing and share its own development success stories with the 57 member states, the state minister for foreign affairs has said.

“A new emerging Bangladesh needs to be known,” Md Shahriar Alam said on Thursday while speaking on why Bangladesh is hosting the council of foreign ministers or CFM at a seminar ahead of the meeting in the first week of May.

“Islamic Values for Sustainable Peace, Solidarity and Development” – is the theme of the Dhaka meeting, the state minister said.

He said with the decision of hosting the meet, Bangladesh has already become part of the OIC CFM Troika and an “influential” member of the eight members OIC Executive Committee for three years.

“Bangladesh’s leadership role in OIC is going to enhance its good image and strengthen its diplomatic position in safeguarding and promoting its interests not only in the OIC framework but also at global stage with beneficial impacts both at home and abroad,” Shahriar said, adding that Rohingya issue will also get prominence.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and in pursuit of her government’s Vision 2021 of a digital middle income Bangladesh, we have been most successful in attaining the MDGs and with steady economic growth of above 6 percent for a decade we have lately come out of the LDC brackets.

“Bangladesh is progressing confidently in all indices of development with a number of success stories such as - in being a model UN country, an inclusive society of interfaith harmony, having high rate of poverty eradication and a range of social safety net, women’s empowerment and gender equality, peace keeping in the world, largely containing terrorism, enhancing climate resilience, advancing in the fields of health, education, ICT, and STI.

“Time has therefore come that we share these success stories and our best practices with our brotherly countries of OIC...,” he said.

The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar to discuss about the upcoming meeting.

Bangladesh joined the Islamic grouping in 1974 during its second summit in Lahore.

Shahriar said at the initial stage, the OIC membership “indeed helped Bangladesh in securing recognition, establishment of bilateral relations with the Arab world which subsequently provided us with the first external labour market and a new source of foreign assistance.”

Oil-rich Middle East still remains the largest source of foreign remittance representing around 70 percent of global remittance inflow, he said.

“Socio-cultural interaction with the Muslim world also helps our people strengthen and flourish their Islamic values and bondage,” he said, adding that Bangladesh was also benefitted by the OIC’s institutions like IDB which is a source of development credit for Bangladesh.

He said during the meeting, the challenges the Islamic world is facing such as the conflicts, division, tension and instability of the Muslim world will get focus.

Those will be discussed along with the problems of terrorism and violent extremism, sectarian tendencies, hatred, prejudice and Islamophobia, massive humanitarian crises with forced displacements- seriously affecting rights and dignity of the Muslim minorities like the Rakhine Muslims of Myanmar, persistent poverty and socio-economic backwardness of Muslim societies are OIC priorities.

Protection of their rights and fundamental freedoms therefore, will remain a major preoccupation of this CFM, he said.

Rohingya problem will get prominence with a separate sideline session on the humanitarian challenges of the Muslim world with special focus on the Rohingyas on May 6 and prior to that a visit to the Rohingya make shifts in Cox’s Bazar will take place on May 4.

Bangladesh has brought a new resolution on multi-sectoral connectivity for the meeting, he said.

It is also taking the lead in forming a private sector and track 1.5 based economic cooperation initiative called South East Asian Cooperation (SEACO) with regional economic cooperation and integration in mind involving three South East Asian member states.

“Ultimate objective is to have a regional FTA and thereby encourage OIC FTA with this building block basis example,” the state minister said, adding that the need of reforms of the OIC systems will also be discussed.