Closing the OIC trade gap with AI-powered trade intelligence
A second, AI-powered agency running alongside ICDT's human team, so that every exporter, buyer and investor in the 57 Member States finds a partner inside the OIC, in Arabic, French or English, every day of the year.
“Every import we redirect to a supplier in another Member State keeps that value inside our community. AI lets us do it at the scale of 57 countries.”
Director General, ICDT
For more than forty years, ICDT has served trade and investment among the Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Our mandate covers 57 countries, three working languages and millions of businesses. Our team works from one headquarters in Casablanca, with the hours and the budget of a human organisation.
The latest figures leave no room for complacency. In 2025 our Member States imported USD 2.64 trillion and exported USD 2.36 trillion. The gap of USD 284 billion is four times larger than a year earlier, and only one dollar in five of our trade stays within the OIC.
Artificial intelligence changes the arithmetic. It can find the supplier, qualify the buyer, read the regulation and follow up the deal at a scale no human team can reach alone.
I therefore propose the ICDT AI Agency. It will not replace our staff. It will give each department an AI counterpart, supervised by a named expert, so that our people spend their time where they matter most: negotiation, diplomacy and partnership.
Humans decide. Agents scale.
The AI Agency mirrors ICDT's organisation layer by layer. Authority flows down from the Board; capacity flows up from data and agents. Select a layer to see how it works.
Imports grew 7.6% in 2025 while exports fell 1.3%
Every figure below comes from ICDT's Annual Report on Trade and Investments among OIC Member States, presented at the 42nd COMCEC session in Istanbul in 2026, built on IMF DOTS, WITS and ITC data.
The trade balance swung to a $284B deficit
Imports overtook exports again from 2023
The intra-OIC share has stalled near 20%
Ten countries carry 73% of intra-OIC trade
The demand is already inside
Electrical machinery, fuels and vehicles rank among both the top exports and the top imports of Member States. Buyers and sellers of the same products are not meeting.
Africa is under-connected
Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab Maghreb Union hold only 12% of intra-OIC trade, against 39% for the GCC and 27% for Asia.
Services are the next frontier
Trade in services among Member States reached USD 1.48 trillion in 2025, and digitally delivered services are expected to pass 30% of world trade in 2026.
Source: ICDT, Executive Summary of the Annual Report on Trade and Investments among OIC Member States, COMCEC 42nd session, 2026.
An intelligent trade centre for the whole OIC
Every exporter, buyer and investor in the OIC can find a partner in another Member State in minutes, in their own language.
Multiply ICDT's reach across its seven areas of action with a supervised AI agency that monitors markets, answers businesses, matches buyers with sellers, promotes investment and trains officials, so that more OIC imports are sourced from OIC suppliers and Member States move toward the 30% intra-OIC trade target of 2035.
Eight agents. Seven areas of action. One agency.
Each agent maps to an existing ICDT programme, reports to a human sponsor and is measured by one primary indicator.
Each dollar redirected to an OIC supplier closes the gap by one dollar
The OIC trade balance is the sum of its members' balances. When a Member State buys from another Member State instead of from outside the OIC, its imports stay the same but the seller's exports rise. The group's deficit with the rest of the world falls by the full value of the deal.
Intelligence spots substitutable imports
Each Member State's imports are compared with what other Member States already export, product by product.
Agents connect buyers with OIC suppliers
Suppliers are qualified, rules of origin and the OIC Trade Preferential System explained, and B2B meetings booked.
Follow-up turns meetings into contracts
Every lead from fairs and Invest Days is tracked to outcome. People close and sign.
Simulate the AI Agency's contribution by 2031
Base: 2025 OIC imports of USD 2,643 billion, of which USD 513 billion (19.4%) came from other Member States. Illustrative, holding the 2025 import level constant.
| Scenario by 2031 | Share gain | Intra-OIC import share | Redirected per year | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | +1.0 pt | 20.4% | $26B | Helpdesk and matchmaking on ICDT events only |
| Base | +2.5 pts | 21.9% | $66B | All 8 agents live; 20 national agencies connected |
| Ambitious | +4.0 pts | 23.4% | $106B | Shared services running in 40 Member States |
Reading the numbers. Reaching 30% by 2035 needs the intra-OIC share to rise about one point a year from 19.6% in 2025. A 10.6 point rise in the intra-OIC import share at 2025 levels would redirect about USD 280 billion a year, roughly the size of the 2025 deficit. The AI Agency is one contributor among ICDT programmes, Member State policies and partner institutions; the attribution slider keeps that assumption visible.
Pilots in 9 months. Shared services by 2029.
The plan runs in step with the OIC Ten-Year Programme of Action 2026 to 2035. Select a year.
A Board-approved AI Charter before any launch
Board of Directors
Approves the Charter, the five-year plan and the annual budget. Receives a progress report every year.
AI Ethics and Quality Committee
Reviews each agent before launch and every six months: accuracy, neutrality, data protection and complaints.
Head of the AI Agency
Reports to the Director General and leads a small team of data, product and security specialists with the agent sponsors.
| Risk | Mitigation | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Staff concern about replacement | Early communication; every agent has a staff sponsor; AI training for all staff in 2027 | Director General |
| Error in official information | Human validation of official outputs; sources shown in every answer | Agent sponsors |
| Uneven data between Member States | Data partnerships with national agencies, ITC, WTO and UNCTAD | Business Intelligence |
| Perceived bias between Member States | Neutral ranking rules published in the Charter; semi-annual audits | Ethics Committee |
| Dependence on one vendor | Data and knowledge base stay under ICDT control; portable architecture | Head of AI Agency |
About USD 10.8 million over five years
Indicative planning estimates for discussion, to be replaced by a costed business plan in Phase 0 after the data inventory and partner consultations.
Spending peaks in 2028 when all agents go live
People and platforms take two thirds
IsDB Group
IsDB, ITFC and ICD can support the AI Agency as a regional public good, alongside ICDT's digitalisation work on e-Phyto, eTIR and eCMR.
Member State AI agencies
Technical partnerships with Member States that have strong AI capacity, such as Morocco, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Türkiye.
Service revenue from 2029
Shared AI services for national trade and investment promotion organisations, priced to cover running costs.
Five decisions requested from the Board
Presentation session, 90 minutes
- 0:00Opening by the Director General10 min
- 0:10The OIC trade gap in data15 min
- 0:25The AI Agency model and its eight agents15 min
- 0:40Impact analysis and live simulation10 min
- 0:50Action plan 2027 to 2031 and indicators15 min
- 1:05Budget, financing and governance15 min
- 1:20Decisions and next steps10 min
Decisions requested
- Approve the ICDT AI Agency concept and its five-year plan.
- Mandate the Director General to appoint the Head of the AI Agency and the core team.
- Approve the Phase 0 budget and the drafting of the AI Charter.
- Authorise consultations with the IsDB Group and Member State AI agencies.
- Request a first progress report at the next COMCEC session.
Decision calendar
Quarters are proposals; meeting dates follow the Board's and COMCEC's calendars.
The first intergovernmental trade organisation to run a full AI agency
Serving all 57 Member States in Arabic, French and English, every day of the year.