New OIC programs for member countries

KUALA LUMPUR- Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on the capable OIC member states to assist the weaker members erase poverty in the Muslim world.
This came during a special meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on new capacity-building programs in the Muslim world last night.
Badawi, whose country is the current chairman of the OIC and NAM (Non-Aligned Movement), described the initiative as a modest beginning.
"We need to erase the image that a large part of the Muslim world is a world of backwardness, ignorance and violence," Badawi said when outlining seven initiatives involving as many host countries to be implemented as capacity-building programs.
Three of the seven projects were launched last night under phase one including Capacity-building in the palm oil industry in Sierra Leone, exploration of oil and mineral resources and capacity-building in administrative planning and management in Mauritania and fisheries development in Bangladesh.
The Premier added that the project which took off less than a year after it was mooted must become a permanent feature of the OIC's economic cooperation.
The four projects under the second phase of the initiative involve capacity-building projects in the Comoros, Guinea, Indonesia and the Maldieves.