Sudan’s leader calls for Turkish firms

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has called for more Turkish investment in his impoverished country during a meeting with the head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu.

“[Al-Bashir] said he was proud of Turkey’s economic success and he would be happy to see Turkey contribute to the economic transformation in Sudan. He invited Turkish business people to invest in Sudan,” according to a TOBB statement.

Hisarcıklıoğlu met with al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, in Khartoum, where he attended a gathering of the board of directors of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI).

At the ICCI meeting, Hisarcıklıoğlu drew attention to the need to remove trade barriers between Muslim countries and added that the total output of the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was less than those of Germany and Japan.

“Our commerce figures are as disturbing as our production ratio. Our share in world production is no higher than 10.5 percent. Trade among us was only 17 percent of our total trade in 2010,” he said.
Hisarcıklıoğlu also said Muslim women should be integrated into economic life by pointing to the example of the Prophet Muhammad’s wife Khadijah, who was a merchant.