Turkey: Int'l organizations should be reorganized

By Andac Hongur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's vice president said Thursday that international bodies as well as the UN should be reorganized.

There is need for international institutions as well as the UN and its bodies to be reorganized, Fuat Oktay said, adding that the world faced new challenges every day.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 35th Ministerial Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC), Oktay said that excessively high economic growth rates could bring inequality and poverty for many.

"As high growth rates drive millions of people into poverty, growth becomes less of a sustainable development goal for a country. Development should provide a structure that offers equal opportunities to all and prioritizes social justice," he said.

Oktay added that COMCEC member states reflect this in their development policies.

Underlining that the Islamic world faced serious threats, he stressed that those threats were manifesting as Islamophobia and xenophobia in different parts of the world.

He also said that although Islamic countries made up to 24% of the world population, they represented only 9.7% of global trade.