D-8 Secretary General, Widi Pratikto (left), and Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu (right), met to coordinate the progress that has been taking place in the organization on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

D-8 Secretary General, Widi Pratikto, has just recently met the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in his first official visit to the Turkish host to introduce himself as the new secretary general, as well as to coordinate the progress that has been taking place in the organization. Pratikto was welcomed cordially by Davutoglu, and both sides had a productive talk covering various contemporary issues in the organization, as well as the recent Abuja Summit in 4-8 July 2010 in Nigeria.

Pratikto expressed his appreciation and gratitude to his appointment as the Secretary General of D-8 and wish Turkey’s constant support to D-8 and to his leadership in the organization. He also recapped a number of developments reached in the Abuja Summit, which consisted of series of meetings in the commissioner, council, and head of states level, that was held earlier this month. In addition to that, he said, D-8 also held a Central Bank Experts and Governors meeting along the sidelines that discussed a wide range of issues from Islamic Banking, Monetary Policy and Price Stability, Micro Finance, Anti-Money laundering, Reserves Management, Development Finance, ICT, Capacity Building, as well as the role of D-8 in global affairs.

Pratikto said that these meetings had been very productive and successful that led to the Abuja Declaration at the end of the Summit. He also briefed the foreign minister, that D-8 shall be organizing an HLTO and WGCA meeting that are scheduled within a few weeks ahead.

For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Davutoglu, pledged his solid and continuous support for D-8 and congratulated Widi Pratikto as the new Secretary General, resuming the post of Dipo Alam who had been assigned by the Indonesian President as the Cabinet Secretary Minister of the Republic of Indonesia earlier this year. Davutoglu emphasized that the success of D-8 Secretary General is the success of the organization, as well as the success of Turkey itself. He also underlined that D-8 Countries are major and well-respected countries within their own region, and this potentials should be thoroughly explored and capitalized. There are, he said, many rooms for improvement in order to boost the cooperation among the member countries up to their potentials.

Davutoglu said that the bilateral relations between member countries is also another part of the big picture in D-8 that should be worked on. He said that he is convinced that a deep and intense sectoral cooperation in specific areas of cooperation between member countries will undoubtedly benefit the D-8 Organization as a whole.

Davutoglu also touched two important points of the discussion and review of the D-8 Charter, and the sectoral cooperation among member countries in the D-8. He also underlined Turkey’s commitment to speed up the ratification process of the Head Quarter Agreement and pledged his full support should there be any other ad-hoc issue that are standing in the way of the D-8.

Heads of state and ministers from D-8 met in Nigeria to discuss developing business ties and reducing trade barriers, earlier this week in the D-8 Head of States Summit in Abuja

D-8 Organization aim to reach a preferential trade agreement by next year to try to double trade and deepen economic cooperation, Nigerian government officials said on Thursday.

Heads of state and ministers from the Developing Eight Countries (D8) — Iran, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey - met in Nigeria to discuss developing business ties and reducing trade barriers, earlier this week in the D-8 Head of States Summit in Abuja. This 7th D-8 summit ended on Friday with the signing of a pact on three multilateral agreements to further economic cooperation and mutual engagements among member states.

The three agreements are the simplification of visa procedures for businesspersons of D-8 member states, the preferential trade agreement and the multilateral agreement on administrative assistance in customs matters.

Declaring the seventh summit of the group open in Abuja, Jonathan said Nigeria was blessed with abundant human and natural resources that the D-8 members could exploit.

The president said: “With a population of 150 million, Nigeria is not only Africa’s most populous country, but also a preferred investment destination on account of its abundant human and natural resources.

“These are assets that we are making available to investors in D-8 member-countries to exploit,’’ he said.

Jonathan said he would welcome proposals for the establishment of the D-8 Joint Investment Fund as a vehicle for expanding the scope, volume and value of trade and investment among member-states.

“While the role of government as a catalyst and enabler of economic growth remains pivotal, the primary driver of this process must be the private sector,” Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan told the summit.

Trade between the member nations of the D8, which was created in 1997 to try to foster economic cooperation between developing nations, is estimated at around $68 billion a year, or about three percent of global trade.

“Only the agreement on simplification of visa procedures for businessmen has entered force even though three states are yet to ratify it,” Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said while handing over of the leadership of the D-8 to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The D-8 should be looking at real economic collaboration and supporting investments and economic ventures to enhance our economic cooperation objectives,” he added.

Muhyiddin said there was an earnestness among delegates for the D8 to move forward despite the various domestic matters each of the countries had to attend to.

“We want tangible cooperation which, we believe, we can achieve under the leadership of Nigeria,” he said. At the summit, Malaysia handed over to Nigeria the chairmanship of D8, which it had held since 2008.

Muhyiddin said it was necessary to emphasise the role of the private sector at the early stage in any proposed project.

The private sector would need the support of the governments of the member countries for the project to proceed smoothly, he said.

“The aim is to double trade in the next five years,” Abdul Qadir Memon, Pakistan’s deputy secretary at the commerce ministry, said on the sidelines of the meeting, attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

D-8 need to ensure a comprehensive surveillance of their financial system in order to forestall a re-occurrence of the recent global shocks

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi on Tuesday called on the Central Bank Governors of the D-8 to ensure a comprehensive surveillance of their financial system in order to forestall a re-occurrence of the recent shocks experienced by them in the wake of the global economic crisis.

D-8 is holding series of meetings which will ended by a Summit meeting in Abuja to fashion out strategies on how to manage their economies to promote economic growth and development.

The objective of the meeting according to the apex bank boss was also meant to provide the modalities and mechanisms for economic and financial cooperation among member countries.

This, he noted would help to “deepen and broaden the exchange of ideas among individual countries for more effective policy implementation as well as strengthen cooperation among member states.”

The meeting, he added, would also provide a platform for sharing experiences on the management of economic and financial institutions; boost efforts to support financial stability as well as strengthen cooperation in key areas of responsibility.

The apex bank governor, while declaring open the maiden edition of the D-8 central bank governors’ meeting in Abuja said that the need to strengthen financial surveillance among member states became imperative in order to reduce the impact of the meltdown on their respective economies.

He listed the impact to include erosion of foreign exchange reserves, which led to currency depreciations; increased unemployment; declines in growth rates as well as commodity price shocks.

He said, “You will recall that the recent global financial crisis affected virtually all countries. Developing or emerging countries such as ours experienced shocks. As a consequence, fiscal and monetary authorities in emerging economies had to undertake policy reviews.

“Against this background, it becomes imperatives for D-8 countries to explore common grounds for concerted efforts to harness the potentials and strengths of their respective economies to overcome the economic challenges posed by the global financial and economic crisis.

He adds, “Importantly, it has become necessary to review and adopt the common regulatory regimes to safeguard financial systems stability to forestall a re-occurrence of the recent experience in our various countries.”

Also speaking, the Minister Finance, Dr. Olusegun Aganga charged the D-8 central bank governors in the area of financial integration. This he noted would enable them to contribute significantly to global trade.

He said, “The area of cooperation by D-8 central banks draw up by the secretariat is very important especially in trade facilitation. As developing countries, we all have a duty to promote trade among ourselves in order to grow our economy at a faster rate than we would ordinarily afford to.

“The statistics shows that the total population of D-8 countries is closed to the population of India and China but our economic performance does not compare with any of them. D-8 countries contribute only about three per cent of world trade, if our central banks deliver low stable prices, competitive and stable real exchange rates; we would be assured that the economic activities will maintain economic values.”

Source: the Punch, D-8 Media.

The 28th session of the Commissioners two-day meeting at the State House Banquet Hall in Asokoro, Abuja, is attended by senior officials and technocrats appointed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of each member country

The 7th Summit of the Group of 8 (D-8) started here on Sunday with the meeting of D-8 Commissioners in this capital city of Nigeria, Abuja.

The 28th session of the Commissioners’ two-day meeting at the State House Banquet Hall in Asokoro, here, is attended by senior officials and technocrats appointed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of each member country.

As the executive organ within the D-8, the Commissioners will implement the resolutions and roles assigned to each member state.

On Tuesday, the D-8 Foreign Ministers will attend the 13th Session of the D-8 Council of Foreign Ministers at the same venue.

The heads of government are scheduled to arrive for the summit the next day. The Summit culminates on July 8 when the heads of government discuss and adopt the report of the 13th Session of D-8 Council of Foreign Ministers.

They are also expected to endorse the Offer List of D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement as well as discuss and adopt the Abuja Declaration at the end of the summit.

The Abuja Declaration is expected to address issues that could mitigate the challenges facing the D-8 member countries including global economic recession, energy, climate change and global warming because these issues affected agriculture and food security as well as transportation in the world trade.

At the peak of the biannual Summit, the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is expected to hand over the D-8 Chairmanship which is held by Malaysia since 2008 to the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan.

The theme for this summit is “Enhancing Investment Cooperation Among D-8 Members”. The summit also involves the private sectors apart from the D-8 Heads of State and Government, Foreign Ministers and bureaucrats.

The Summit aims to reinforce the economic cooperation among member countries through the sharing of expertise in the fields of energy, transport, tourism, banking, financial institution, infrastructure development, human resources development, science and technology, migrant workers and remittances, small and medium scale enterprises as well as information and communication technology.

It is also to boost the participation of member states in the decision-making process at the international level.

Among the important agenda of the summit would be the D-8 Roadmap for Economic Cooperation (2008-2018).

The roadmap, which was endorsed during the Kuala Lumpur Summit in 2008, 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.

Source: BERNAMA, D-8 Media.