Delegation of Organisation of Islamic Capitals and Cities (OICC), led by Mr. Muhammed Hamdi Mustafa, Assistant Secretary General, paid working visit to Union of Municipalities of Marmara and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) on 23-25 June 2009. Mayor of Istanbul is member of the Board of Directors of the Organisation of Islamic Capitals and Cities, an affiliate body of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

Visiting Union of Municipalities of Marmara, the delegation of OICC expressed their appreciation of UMM's involvement in the project development to support urban development in the Middle East. During the meeting with UMM's Secretary General Assoc.Prof. Recep Bozlağan and Director of EU & International Relations Centre Murat Daoudov, the delegation of OICC discussed the opportunities of cooperation.

Visiting the Union's newly opened International City and Local Government Library, Mr. Muhammed Hamdi Mustafa praised it as a very important contribution to the development of urban management studies and additional tool for the dissemination of local government knowledge in the region. He stated that OICC will support the library by providing full range of their publications. As result of the working meeting, both organisations agreed on starting a joint e-newsletter in Arabic, English and Turkish on urban issues. Finally, Mr. Muhammed Hamdi Mustafa invited UMM to become associate member of their organisation.

Fruitful contacts at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

The delegation had meetings with Mr. Göksel Gümüşdağ, 2nd Vice-Chairman of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipal Assembly, and with the staff of the Foreign Relations Department of IMM.

During the meeting at IMM, Mr. Hamdi Mustafa stated that OICC was founded in 1980 as an affiliate body of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and that is has 141 member cities from 54 Islamic countries. He expressed that their aim was to preserve the historical heritage in Islamic cities and to increase the quality of life and local services. "Istanbul, as an exemplary city for Islamic cities, may well make major contributions to OICC." Mr Hamdi Mustafa said. The delegation mentioned the ongoing projects of the organisation , such as comprehensive city reports on Cairo and San'a and the following report on Damascus.

Visiting the Foreign Relations Department, Mr. Muhammed Hamdi Mustafa said that Turkey considerably improved its relations with the Arab world and that is widely approved by the whole Arab public. He hoped that the relations would be increased at the local governments level as well.

Director of Foreign Relations Department, Mr. Selamettin Ermiş stated that they were open to collaborating with the local governments of the Islamic world and that they would be glad to bring the best practises of Islamic countries to Istanbul. Mr Ermiş also said that the Jeddah Office of IMM, which is planned to be opened soon, would be highly beneficial for OICC in terms of developing closer relations. He expressed that Islamic countries, particularly Gulf countries, were making major investments in Western countries and that they, too, were expecting such investments in Istanbul.

At the end, Mr. Muhammed Hamdi Mustafa stressed that it would be important that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality transfers its experience to the other cities which are also members of the Organisation , and invited Istanbul to OICC Administrative Council Meeting to be held in May 2010.

Source: http://www.marmara.gov.tr/newsdetail.aspx?newsId=377
Source: http://www.ibb.gov.tr/en-US/Pages/Haber.aspx?NewsID=121