Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chairs the world's biggest grouping of Islamic nations, today launched a new capacity-building program to help lift the Muslim world out of poverty.

Abdullah said the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) initiative marked a modest beginning towards erasing poverty in the Muslim world. According to a United Nations report, 22 out of the world's 50 least developed countries are OIC members, he said.

"We need to erase the image that a large part of the Muslim world is a world of backwardness, ignorance and violence," he was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency at the launch of the OIC program.

"We need to change ourselves and institute a process of change from within. The time for lament and blaming others for our misfortunes is over."

Phase one of the program involves development in Sierra Leone's palm oil industry, Bangladesh's fisheries sector as well as the exploration for oil and mineral resources and capacity building in Mauritania's administration.

Four projects earmarked for phase two, expected to be launched soon, are the processing and export of Guinea's mango products, a capacity building project in Comoros, and post-tsunami redevelopment in Indonesia and Maldives, he said.

Self-help programme

The program, conceived by Abdullah after Malaysia assumed the chairmanship of the 57-member OIC at a summit here in 2003, is not based on the availability of grant aid or international funding but on self-help, Bernama said.

It will involve at least three parties - the country hosting the project, one or two OIC members volunteering assistance in the form of funds or expertise and the private sector participating on a commercial basis.

Abdullah said the Islamic Development Bank supported the program and would take the lead role in drawing up an action plan and identifying projects for implementation. He said such capacity building programs should become a permanent feature of OIC economic cooperation.