GDRG Home

THE GOLD DINAR RESEARCH GROUP

M'sia urge OIC member countries to use Gold Dinar

UTUSAN EXPRESS 22/10/2002

OUAGADOUGOU (Burkina Faso) Oct 21 - Malaysia hopes that the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) members and others will use Gold Dinar in future trade transactions in order to enhance economic and trade relationships among themselves.

This will be among the issues to be raised during the two-day 27th annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) beginning here tomorrow, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh.

Dr Shafie, who is heading a five-member delegation to the annual meeting, said Malaysia would impress upon the delegates that using Gold Dinar as an alternative means of transactions would strengthen them and shield them from the uncertainties of using the US dollar which is unstable of late due to the current development in the global economy and security.

"We will entice Islamic countries to accept the concept of trading using Gold Dinar to facilitate and to enhance trade among Islamic countries as well as other trading partners, as we can no longer rely on the unstable dollar compared with other currencies in use presently," he told Bernama.

With that, Malaysia hoped that initially Gold Dinar would be used as a bilateral payment arrangement (BPA), and ultimately the BPA would be expanded as a multi-lateral payment arrangement with other participating Islamic countries as well as other trading partners, he added.

As the usage of Gold Dinar would become a normal practice, the poorer Islamic countries seeking aids and support from the IDB would gain the confidence of the Islamic funding and assistance institution, he said.

Dr Shafie also said Malaysia would urge Muslim countries to look at Malaysia as their new trading destination in investments, especially in view that more and more tourists from West Asia are visiting Malaysia.

He said this would augur well for more investments from the Middle East as well as other Muslim countries.

On another note, he said Malaysia's stand on the Palestinian issue would also be submitted during the plenary sessions at the annual meeting where Malaysia expects to call on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to halt all military actions and withdraw fully from the occupied Palestinian territory.

He added that this was important as trade could only be intensified when there was global peace in all region following the Sept 11 2001 attacks on the US.

The event had brought a threat to Islamic countries' assets being frozen as the US accused them of being supportive towards such terrible acts.

Malaysia, condemning military aggressions and violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws, has reiterated that lasting peace in the West Asia was only possible if Israel withdrew completely from all Palestine and other Israeli-occupied lands since 1967.

"Malaysia is fully supportive of the idea to allow the UN Protection Force to enter the disputed areas in the occupied Palestinian territories and provide security for both Palestinians and Israelis alike," Dr Shafie said.

Fifty-four IDB member countries are participating in the two-day meeting to be held at the Ouaga 2000 Centre here.

The Secretary of the Financial Division of the Finance Ministry Ahmad Hashim is among the Malaysian delegates to the event, while Bank Industri Malaysia and Bank Pembangunan dan Infrastruktur Malaysia Bhd are acting observers.