OIC Members Countries To Leverage On Strength & Cooperate In Building Capacity

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) –- The Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries meeting here, agreed today, to leverage on individual strengths and cooperate in building capacity. This includes the training programmes organised by the Statistical Economic and Social Research and Training Centres for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) for central banks of the OIC member countries. The four-day meeting which ends Thursday, is themed, Central Banking and Financial Sector Development. It is being hosted by Bank Negara Malaysia (central bank). The Governors and Heads of Delegations attending it said in a statement today, that moving forward, emerging economies are expected to continue to contribute towards driving the global economic recovery and growth. "Thus, the potential role of Islamic Finance, in supporting this endeavour should be given special attention. "In this regard, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthen collaboration in capitalising our growth potential," they added. A key finding at the meeting, is the importance of an effective functioning sector in supporting sound and sustainable economic development, as well as the need for increased efforts to mitigate the destabilising consequences of development on the respective economies. The OIC member countries also acknowledged that the financial sector had an essential role to efficiently intermediate funds towards productive economic activities while generating sustainable and balanced growth. "We discussed the importance of building strong financial institutions to serve the economy, having the necessary financial infrastructure supported and balanced by a strong regulatory and supervisory framework to safeguard financial stability," the statement said. Other recommendations were that central banks in collaboration with the relevant government agencies, should play a critical role in facilitating a nation’s development agenda towards achieving sustainable and non-inflationary economic growth, as well as the need to create an inclusive financial sector towards balanced economic growth. -- BERNAMA