65
CHAPTER 4. SME EXPORT PROMOTION POLICIES IN OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES:
HIGHLIGHTS
Boosting competitiveness in international markets and promoting greater participation by SMEs to
international trade have become key policy priorities in many OIC member countries. This chapter
presents highlights about of SME export promotion policies developed at OIC level and by a sample of
OIC member countries. Based on the detailed country-level evidence presented in Chapter 3, it comments
on general trends in SME policy strategies, on the role of trade promotion organisations, on programmes
and tools adopted.
4.1 Promoting intra-OIC trade: COMCEC Strategy
Over the last years, the trade of OIC countries has continued to grow and intra-OIC trade has been
expanding, notwithstanding the global economic and financial crisis and the slowdown in global trade
activity. Between 2010 and 2011, the trade of OIC member countries increased by 23.5%, from USD 3.2
trillion to USD 3.9 trillion. This increase is related to both expanded exports and import demand in OIC
countries, although the overall balance has improved. In fact, over 2010-2011, export increased by 27.9%
whereas import grew by 18.7%. Over the last decade export grew at a significant rate in all the countries
analysed for this report. In the case of Uganda and Egypt, for instance, export increased by nearly five
times over 2000-2010.
The share of world trade accounted for by OIC countries reached 10.8% in 2011, almost double than
6.1% in 1990. However, there are large disparities within the OIC. Most of the OIC share of world trade
is concentrated in a few countries: Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Nigeria,
Qatar, Kuwait and Algeria account for 73% of world trade by OIC member states. These are also amongst
the countries that have benefited most from higher prices of energy and other commodities (ICDT, 2012).
Intra-OIC trade has also been rising constantly over the last years, reaching a value of USD 687.7 billion
in 2011, a 27.6% increase with respect to USD 539 billion in 2010. According to ICDT (2012), this
increase reflects regional promotional efforts, the establishment of bilateral and regional trade
agreements, the similarity of patterns of consumption and complementarity of economic models, but also,
at least in part, the global economic crisis, which has re-oriented some of the trade towards neighbouring
countries. At the same time, specific regional events, such as the Arab Spring, had a negative impact on
the growth of trade in goods and services for some OIC countries.
As a result of increasing trade opening, trade promotion programmes and commercial integration of OIC
economies, the share of OIC intra-trade in the total trade of Member States reached 17.7% in 2011, a
progress towards the 20% target for the year 2015, advocated by the Ten Year Programme of Action
(TYPO). The TYPO mandated the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) to promote measures to expand the scope of intra-
OIC trade, and to consider the possibility of establishing a Free Trade Area between the Member States in
order to achieve greater economic integration.
Trade is one of the six cooperation areas prioritised by COMCEC, whose Strategy, launched in 2012,
identifies the expansion of trade among OIC member countries as a key strategic objective, to be achieved
by way of:
i) trade liberalisation, i.e. reducing existing tariffs and eliminating non-tariff barriers;
ii) trade facilitation, i.e. enabling time and cost effective trade transactions;
iii) trade financing, i.e. promoting and strengthening trade financing mechanisms, and;