The Third Meeting of the Project Committee and the Fourth Meeting of the Steering Committee for the Implementation of the OIC Cotton Action Plan were held on 27-28 September in Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco. The Third Project Committee Meeting was chaired by Dr. Osman Mahjoub ELFIEL, from the IDB Group and the Fourth Steering Committee Meeting was chaired by Mr. İsmail KALENDER, General Manager, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of the Turkey.

In addition to the representatives of the following OIC Member Countries: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Indonesia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Syria, Turkey and Uganda, the representatives of the OIC General Secretariat, COMCEC Coordination Office, SESRIC, ICDT and the Centres of Excellence also participated in the meeting.

After the recitation of the Verses of the Holy Qu’ran, H.E. Amb. Thierno Nabika Diallo read the message of H.E. Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the OIC and following this, Mr. Allal Rachdi, Director General of ICDT, gave a welcome address to the participants and expressed his appreciation for the valuable support of the OIC Secretary General for the implementation of the OIC Five Year Cotton Action Plan.

Opening the Meeting, Dr. Osman Mahjoub ELFIEL, from the IDB Group and Chairman of the 3rd Meeting of the Project Committee, made a brief introduction on the importance of the deliberations of the Project Committee. He also recalled the work and recommendations of the 1st and 2nd Project Committee Meetings.

After adoption of the Agenda, the discussion and deliberations focused on the 14 projects proposals on Cotton sector which have been prepared and submitted by 7 Member Countries to the IDB for financing. These project proposals cover wide range of activities related to development of cotton sector in these countries, including capacity building, training, research, production, marketing, pest management, etc. The IDB has received these project proposals through the OIC General Secretariat and currently they are being reviewed to assess their technical soundness and economic viability. As per IDB procedures these proposals will be further discussed with the countries concerned to explore possible financing modalities to determine their priorities for inclusion in the country work program. Upon agreement on the financing modalities and receipt of official request from the governments of concerned countries, these proposals will be considered by IDB for financing under different financing windows.

The representative of the SESRIC, Mr. Mostafa Rmouch, gave a short presentation on two project proposals under the OIC-VET Program, namely ‘Cotton Growing and Irrigation Techniques, Quality Improvement and Treatment of Cotton Diseases’ and ‘Cotton Processing’. The two projects were endorsed for submission to the Steering Committee and the Committee invited SESRIC to organize such training courses in close collaboration with the Centres of Excellence specialized in Cotton research in order to add to the quality of the training programs.

On the second day, Mr. Ismail KALENDER , representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of the Turkey, chaired the Fourth Steering Committee Meeting. The Meeting adopted the Report of the 3rd Meeting of the Project Committee and decided to submit the approved project proposals to the international finance institutions through the OIC general Secretariat. The meeting underlined the importance given to the Cotton Action Plan by OIC General Secretariat and called upon concerned OIC Member States and OIC Institutions to give full support for the implementation of this plan.

The Committee debated on the issue of extending the duration of the OIC Five-Year Cotton Action Plan and decided to submit a proposal to the 26th Session of the COMCEC, to prolong the duration of the Plan for another 5 year period from 2011-2016. In this regards, the Committee raised the issue of preparing a concept paper justifying the need of extending the duration of the plan under the coordination of the COMCEC.

The Committee also called upon the concerned Member States and OIC institutions to give informative contribution to the cotton Web Portal (www.oic-cotton.org) through the OIC General Secretariat in order to enhance the communication and cooperation among themselves.