D-8 - From Developing To Developed

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | July 09, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

To dream the impossible dream of one day the Group of Eight Islamic Developing Countries (D-8) being call the Group of Eight Islamic Developed Countries. And what more, to be similar to the Group of Eight (G-8) which is now meeting in Tokyo.

D-8 secretary general, Dipo Alam, when posed with this question, said this looked like a tall order but not impossible because each member of the grouping has its own advantages in terms of resources and human capital, like Iran and Nigeria which were major oil producing countries. “Why not have such kind of dream … of course to have a dream like that we have to put the basis in order to justify it,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the D-8 Summit here Sunday.

The G-8 groups major industrialised nations, namely, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US.

Among D-8 members, Malaysia, Turkey and Iran are developed in many aspects while Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan have the necessary human capital to advance further in many fields of development.

On the converse, Pakistan is advanced in technology being a nuclear power.

Alam said the D-8, although being a young grouping formed only about 11 years ago, has already attracted the attention of some big countries. “Even some big countries have already asked about our cooperation,” he said.

Alam said the leaders of three D-8 countries, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria, had been invited to the G-8 summit. “It is a good forum for G-8 to understand because we represent about 930 million Muslims,” he said.

Alam said although D-8 members were from different continents and different political background they were united in cooperating under the umbrella of the grouping.”Some of the states are secular … Some of us are Sunnis and some Shiites but when it comes to cooperation we are one,” he said.

He said the D-8 website had also progressed tremendously and received many hits now.

“In other words … the world is looking,” he said.

News/photosource: BERNAMA News Agency.

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