SESRIC delegation led by H.E. Mrs. Zehra Zümrüt SELÇUK, Director General of SESRIC, participated in the 8^th OIC Coordination Committee Meeting on Tourism on 3 May 2023 in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. The meeting was attended by the representatives from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Qatar and Senegal, as well as the OIC General Secretariat, COMCEC Coordination Office, SESRIC, ICDT, IRCICA and SMIIC. The meeting was chaired by the Republic of Azerbaijan, in its capacity as the Chair of the 11^th Session of the  Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (ICTM).

The meeting commenced with opening remarks from H.E. Mr. Kaan GASIMOV, Chief of Cabinet of the State Tourism Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, followed by H.E. Mr. Naghi JABBAROV, Director General of the Department of Economic Affairs of the OIC, delivering a message from H.E. Mr. Hissein Brahim TAHA, the Secretary General of the OIC.

During the meeting, H.E. Mrs. SELÇUK addressed the Committee by extending her appreciation and thanks to the host country, the Republic of Azerbaijan, for their warm hospitality and outstanding arrangements and preparations to ensure the success of this important meeting. She also extended thanks and appreciation to the OIC General Secretariat for its active role in the preparations for this important meeting. Moreover, H.E. Mrs. SELÇUK provided a comprehensive summary of the activities and programmes implemented by SESRIC since the 11^th ICTM in its three mandates areas of statistics, research and training with a view to contributing to and supporting the efforts of the Member Countries towards the development of a sustainable tourism sector.

Besides, concerning relevant agenda items, H.E. Mrs. SELÇUK briefed the Committee on SESRIC proposed activities for the commemoration of the OIC City of Tourism for 2023 and 2024, Şanlıurfa, Türkiye and Khiva, Uzbekistan, respectively. She further shared the proposal of the Centre on the current “Criteria for Assessment of the OIC City of Tourism” for the consideration of the Committee.

After fruitful discussions and deliberations, the meeting concluded with the adoption of the meeting report, Matrix for the implementation of the Resolution of the 11^th ICTM and various OIC tourism programmes, as well as the new updates on the Scoring of the Selection Criteria of the OIC City of Tourism.

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