President calls for increased cooperation among Muslim countries

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on Muslim countries to intensify cooperation in trade and investment to help stem the impacts of the current global multi-facet crisis. 

"In the trade and investment sectors, especially in the current crisis, we must increase solidarity in the form of cooperation for the welafere of the Muslims," President Yudhoyono said in his opening speech at the Fifth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) here on Monday. 

Cooperation was crucial particularly to curb protectionism in the international trade following the global financial crisis, he said. 

The Muslims countries should intensify trade among members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) as stipulated int he OIC`s 10-year action programs which recommended 20 percent increase in the total trade volume among Muslim countries, he said. 

Cooperation agreements signed by the private sectors during the forum were concrete cooperation among Muslims countries, according to him. 

The President witnessed signings of business agreements, among others, between the Ras Al-Khaimah Emirate and the East Kalimantan provincial administration, PT Garuda Indonesia and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, Indonesian state own oil and gas company Pertamina, ETA Star Grup Dubai and Itochu Corporation of Japan, Bank Muamalat Indonesia and the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, as well as between PT Pos Indonesia and Islamic Payment Sdn Berhad of Malaysia. 

He also believed that the application of the Islamic banking system should be boosted to help deal with the financial, food, and energy crises. 

The President said that the syariah (Islamic) banking could cope with the impacts of the global financial crisis better than the conventional banks. 

It showed that the syariah banks was not tempted to invest in the financial and asset sectors only, but they also operated to support the real economic, he said. 

Indonesia has had a Law on syariah banking sicne last year, and in the near future would issue syariah bounds, he said. 

Among those present in the WIEF opening ceremony were Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Morocco Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.