D-8 To Focus On Various Areas To Progress Further

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | November 02, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

The D8 Council of Ministers who began their one-day meeting this morning will, among others, consider the reports of the D8

The 12th Session of The Group of Eight Developing Islamic Countries (D-8) ended here today, with member countries agreeing to work on launching feasible projects, enhance trade and create a charter for the grouping and embark on a young diplomat exchange programme, as reported by Malaysian News Agency, BERNAMA.

In a joint press conference, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, who chaired the one-day meeting, said the ministers had a fruitful meeting and they were very serious in achieving D-8’s objectives.

“We are pleased with the progress achieved by the group, especially since revitalisation efforts undertaken have shown very positive results…we had indepth discussions…the sole purpose of giving benefits to the people of the D-8 countries,” he said.

Anifah said they agreed to focus on efforts to launch feasible projects to be undertaken, not only by the respective governments but also the private sectors.

He said they also agreed to focus on prioritised areas of collaboration such as trade, agriculture and Islamic finance.

“And, among other things that we discussed, are the implementation of the Action Plan, and the form of annual programme of work to ensure that the D-8 is kept on the right track,” he said.

Anifah said, there was also a suggestion to create a D-8 Charter and new visions for the grouping, and this would be discussed at a meeting in Istanbul in January, next year.

“We feel that what we have done so far, is not sufficient and we have to put in more effort and therefore, we need to firstly, have a Charter,” he said.

The D-8 foreign ministers meeting discussed various issues including food security and a roadmap for economic and social cooperation

Anifah said, they agreed that the early ratification of the three D-8 agreements — Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), Agreement on Customs Cooperation and Agreement on Simplification of Visa for D8 Businessmen — were necessary instrument for successful and beneficial economic cooperation among member countries.

Anifah said, member countries also agreed on the exchange of young diplomats, where each country would be sending two diplomats, and where Egypt would be the first country to host the programme.

“I think this is a very good suggestion…to develop understanding and further cooperation among the D-8 countries. Our young diplomats also should get to know each other better, in furtherance to our efforts in all cooperation,” he said, adding that they agreed the programme should start early next year.

Anifah said focus would also be on enhancing intra-trade among D-8 members, from five per cent of the total global trade to 15-20 per cent by 2018. Total global trade among D-8 nations stood at US$1.2 trillion last year.

He said it was important to ensure the success of the D-8 Roadmap for economic cooperation (2008-2018).

The Roadmap which was endorsed during the Sixth D-8 Summit here last year, is aimed at encouraging greater economic cooperation among member states and to assist in mobilising resources from governmental and private sectors in implementing D-8 projects.

“Among D-8 countries, we have about 900 million population combined…you can imagine the potential markets, the demands that we have…so, we have to make it possible to smoothen the process so that we can achieve the objectives together,” he said.

Meanwhile, D-8 Secretary-General Dipo Alam said that Iran had pledged Euro 15 million for a joint-investment of projects.

He said that the priority list of areas of cooperation for D-8 member countries covered trade, agriculture and food security, industrial cooperation and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), transportation, and energy and minerals.

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