SESRIC, Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) sign a very timely MoU concerning expanding their cooperation for enhancing the socio-economic development in the OIC member countries in a more structured manner on 26 June 2014 on the sideline of the 39th IDB Annual Meeting held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The MoU was jointly signed by Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, Dr. Ahmad Muhamed Ali, President of the IDB and Dr. Serdar Çam, President of TIKA.

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The 4th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held on 20-21 May 2014 in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

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The Centre, in collaboration with the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), organised a workshop on “The First Meeting on Public Employment Services in OIC Member Countries”, on 29-30 April 2014, at SESRIC Headquarters in Ankara, Republic of Turkey.

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The Eleventh Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance, organized by the Harvard University Islamic Finance Project, was held from April 25 to 27, 2014, in Austin Hall at Harvard Law School, Harvard University, under the theme “Takaful and Alternative Cooperative Finance.” The Eleventh Forum sought to reassess and critically engage with issues of risk sharing, mutuality, solidarity, and socioeconomic welfare in the context of a discussion about Takaful and other types of cooperative financial solutions. The Centre was represented at the Eleventh Forum by Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director-General, and Mr. Nadi Serhan Aydin, Senior Researcher.

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The Fourth Session of the Statistical Commission of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-StatCom) was co-organised by the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) at SESRIC Headquarters on 21-23 April 2014 in Ankara, Republic of Turkey.

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The Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat) celebrated its official inauguration under the patronage of H.E. Yousef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman on 09 April 2014 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

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The Signing Ceremony, which has been organized by the COMCEC Coordination Office (CCO), for the successful projects under the COMCEC Project Cycle Management (PCM) was held in Ankara on April 2nd, 2014. A total of 15 successful projects under the COMCEC PCM, the main implementation instrument of the new COMCEC Strategy, have been announced on March 9th, 2014. These projects were submitted by 10 OIC member countries namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, and Uganda and two OIC institutions including SESRIC. Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, signed the operational and financial agreements of two successful projects of SESRIC entitled to receive grants within the framework of COMCEC Project Cycle Management (PCM).

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H.E. Dato Haji Ismail bin Haji Abdulmuttalib, Deputy Minister of Human Resources of Malaysia, visited SESRIC Headquarters on 17 February 2014, together with a delegation from the Ministry of Human Resources of Malaysia, and accompanied by H.E. Mr. Amran Mohamed Zin, Ambassador of Malaysia to Turkey. Also present were Mr. Kasım Özer, the Director General of General Directorate of Occupational Health and Safety of Turkey, together with managers and experts from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Turkey.

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H.E. Dr. Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Development of the Republic of Turkey, paid a courtesy visit to SESRIC on 24th January 2014. H.E. the Minister was accompanied by Mr. Ahmet Yaman, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Development, and Mr. Metin Eker, Director General of the COMCEC Coordination Office. H.E. the Minister was welcomed by the Director General of the Centre, Prof. Savaş Alpay, where he expressed his gratitude to the Minister for designating his valuable time for this honourable visit to SESRIC. Following the welcoming, H.E. the Minister was briefed by the heads of the technical departments at the Centre on the activities of their respective departments. The presentations on the activities of the Centre were made by Mr. Hüseyin Hakan Eryetli, Director of Statistics and Information Department, Mr. Nabil M. Dabour, Director of Economic and Social Research Department, and Mr. Mehmet F. Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department.

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H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of the OIC, paid an official visit to the Republic of Turkey on 14-15 January 2014. During his two-day official visit to Ankara, H.E. the Secretary General was received by H.E. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey, and H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister. He also had meetings with H.E. Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister, H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Development. The Secretary General was briefed by the COMCEC Coordination Office on its activities and COMCEC’s new strategy. On 15th January, the Secretary General addressed the 6th Turkish Ambassadorial Conference, which was attended by Turkish ambassadors serving overseas.

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The 4th Session of the Islamic Conference of Ministers of Health, which is held in Jakarta on 22-24 October 2013, adopted the OIC Strategic Health Programme of Action 2014-2023 (OIC-SHPA), which was prepared and submitted by SESRIC.

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The official opening ceremony of the Turkey Country Office of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group was held on 19 September 2013 in Ankara, Turkey at the SESRIC headquarters. The IDB Group decided to launch its first country gateway office ever in Turkey, following the hosting agreement signed early 2013. The ceremony has been attended by H.E. Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey, H.E. Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, H.E. Beşir Atalay, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, Dr. Ahmed Mohamad Ali, President of the IDB Group, Ambassadors of OIC Member Countries, high-level government officials, country representatives of international institutions and eminent personalities.

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The SESRIC, in collaboration with the Participation Banks Association of Turkey (TKBB), Borsa İstanbul, Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), and the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD), organized the “International Forum on Financial Systems (IFFS)”, which was held on 11-12 September 2013 at WOW Convention Center in İstanbul, Turkey. The Forum brought together world-renowned intellectuals including eminent economists, statesmen and policy-makers, heads of international organisations, as well as industry practitioners to explore the potential avenues for building a more just, inclusive and stable financial system for generations to come.

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Jointly with the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) of the Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the International Association of Islamic Economics (IAIE), SESRIC has organized the 9th International Conference on Islamic Economics and Finance (9ICIEF). The Conference was held in WoW Convention Centre in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, on 9-10 September 2013 under the theme “Growth, Equity and Stability: An Islamic Perspective”.

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