DUSHANBE, March 7, 2012, Asia-Plus -- The Secretary General of the OIC has emphasized on the need to utilize the country partnership strategy to complement the current OIC policy on diversification of economic cooperation approaches among the OIC Member States.

According to press release of the Secretary General of the OIC, Professor Ihsanoglu stated this in his keynote address at the OIC Workshop on Country Partnership Models with Central Asia, which concluded its proceedings in Ankara, Republic of Turkey on February 22-23, 2012.

While extolling the contributions of OIC Member States, such as Turkey and Malaysia, the Secretary General emphasized that OIC Plan of Action for Cooperation with Central Asia was aimed at pooling resources for socio-economic development in Central Asia, within the framework of an on-going strategy for enhancing the role of various regional economic blocs for economic integration of the entire OIC community.

The Workshop which was hosted by the Government of Turkey was addressed by H.E. Dr Cevdet YILMAZ, Minister of Development of Turkey. Similarly several OIC countries, in addition to representatives of OIC Member States from Central Asia, made presentations at the Workshop on experiences and best practices on the application of their country partnership strategies.  IsDB, SESRIC, ISESCO and UNDP were among the OIC and international institutions that made presentations at the Workshop.