Islamic countries need to develop trade among themselves, an official from a major business association in Türkiye said Friday.
Erol Yarar, head of the International Business Forum (IBF) taking place for the 26th time this year as part of the 19th MÜSIAD EXPO, organized every two years by the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSIAD), made the statement in a press release.
This year’s event will focus on food safety and the future of agriculture and will be held from Nov. 2 to Nov. 5 in Istanbul.
Highlighting the importance of the MÜSIAD EXPO, the IBF head stated that it strengthens ties between the participating countries and creates opportunities for new commercial partnerships.
“Trade between Islamic countries does not exceed 10% of their total trade,” Yarar said, adding that when oil and natural gas are removed from this, “it falls below 5%.”
“Therefore, Islamic countries are dependent on the economic structures of Western and developed economies. In order to solve this problem, they must first get to know each other and develop their trade with each other,” he said.
Yarar said “we need to take action” to change and achieve this.
“The MÜSIAD EXPO is unfortunately the only international activity that is the most important and consistently held in order to do this. We organize MÜSIAD EXPO every two years in Türkiye so that MÜSiAD member business people and IBF members from all Islamic countries can meet each other, have B2B meetings and see the products,” he said.
