Indonesia Affirms the Significance of D-8 Visa Simplification Agreement

Copenhagen, Denmark | December 18, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

Indonesian President, H.E Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is extending the Indonesian proposal in the National Statement session in the Climate Changes Summit, in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 17, 2009

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, had met with the Indonesian President, H.E Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during the recently-held Climate Changes Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 16 2009, to report on sets of progress that have been achieved by the organization since 2006.

Among the report was the achievement in the ratification of D-8 Visa Simplification Agreement (D-8 VSA), whose signing had been done in February 24, 2001, by four member countries. According to the ratification order, those four countries are: Iran (2003), Pakistan (2006), Turkey (2007) and Malaysia (2009). However, Alam said that there are still four other member countries which have not yet completed the ratification process, which are: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. Along this line, Alam also added that Turkey has especially applied for Visa on Arrival facility request to Indonesia, while waiting for the latter’s ratification on the D-8 Visa Simplification Agreement by the parliement.

“With the D-8 VSA facilitation, we are confident that intra-trade among D-8 could reach 10-15% from total D-8 trade with the world in 10 upcoming years,” Alam said. Recently the D-8 internal volume of trade reached US$78billion, or merely 6% of the total D-8 trade to the world. With significant GDPs (Indonesian GDP at US$530billion, and Turkish GDP at US$730billion), these two countries has been included in the G-20 group, as well as in the OIC as member countries. Both countries are expected to play major role in accelerating economic cooperation among D-8 member countries. Indonesian trade volume to D-8 countries recently is recorded at US$21billion, and it is expected that this amount can be increased in the future, especially with the investment growth to Indonesia.

D-8 Secretary General, Dipo Alam, met with the Indonesian President, H.E Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during the recently-held Climate Changes Summit in Copenhagen to report on sets of progress that have been achieved by the organization since 2006

However, added Alam, it is regretted that recently the trade volume between Indonesia and Turkey is still below US$2billion. He said that one of the factor that can facilitate the volume increase is through simplification visa procedures to businesspersons between the two countries. With this factor is set, the number of visit among two countries can be increased. This is very promising, especially with the recently-opened Turkish Airlines (THY) direct flight from Istanbul-Jakarta (via Singapore), started in September 3rd, 2009. In the meantime, the THY Chairman had also confirmed us that in the Spring 2011, THY shall open direct route of Istanbul-Jakarta, without stopover in Singapore. “We also had discussed this issue with Garuda Indonesia Airlines, which has signed the MoU with THY in the D-8 Director Generals Civil Aviation Meeting in November 2008, in Bali, Indonesia,” Alam said.

H.E Yudhoyono welcomed these progress report and extend his appreciation to the achievements recorded since he led the organization as the chairman-country during the periode of 2006-2008. H.E Yudhoyono appointed Dipo Alam as the D-8 Secretary General during this term, and after the leadership was rotated to Malaysia in 2008, the 6th Head of States Summit Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in June 2008 had unanimously re-elected Dipo Alam as the Secretary General for the tenure of 2009-2012.

In a recent talk with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, Alam discussed about the potential of D-8 in the international arena. “Several studies talk about the importance of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China. However, we talked about BRICMIT. We are working hard to include Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey into the BRIC countries, too. The D-8 possesses potential in this regard. Both Turkey and Indonesia have an important potential concerning their market sizes, natural resources, their roles among both world and Islamic countries. In the future, the D-8 can emerge as today’s G-7 or even it can gain more importance than the G-7 has,” Alam said.

He cited the establishment of a joint investment fund as one of the future projects of the organization. “Work is under way to set up a joint investment fund. Iran promised to allocate 15 million euros for the fund. I hope other countries will also act this way,” he said.

Undoubtedly, D-8 is currenly on the right track to accelerate its cooperation schemes among memberstates. One of the most significant agreement to be entered into force is the D-8 Visa Simplification Agreement, to which Indonesia now put priority on.

In the meeting with the President of Indonesia, Alam also extended several invitations to related authorities in Indonesia for the upcoming working group meetings in Istanbul, Tehran and Cairo in 2010, which was positively responded.

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