D-8 is scheduled to hold the 11th D-8 HLTO Meeting in 9-10 October 2010 in Istanbul

Secretary General, Mr Widi Pratikto, has recently visited the Director General of the Turkish Undersecretariat of the Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade, Mr Husnu Dilemre, earlier this week to exchange views and coordinate the preparation talks for the 11th D-8 HLTO Meeting which shall be soon held in Istanbul, October 9-10, 2010.

In the cordial meeting between two authorities, Mr Pratikto gave a brief summary of the previous HLTO meetings held by D-8 to his colleague. He said that D-8 deeply expected that through this discussion,
the PTA which has been signed by head of states in Bali, Indonesia, in May 2006 can be fully ratified. D-8 Secretary General believes that once the PTA is ratified, the intra-trade volume among D-8 countries will soar. It is expected that within 10 years of time, the total trade volume of D-8 shall increased from 750 billions US$ to nearly 1 trillion US$ — considering that the average growth of D-8 countries is above 5%. Thus, the intra-trade among D-8 can reach around 15-20%. This success will hopefully accelerate the growth of intra-trade among other member states of OIC (59 states), which in turn will be a propelling success to the increase of South-South trade, since the population of D-8 of more than 800 million peoples represent the majority of developing countries.

The fruitful meeting also further discussed about the procedures, agenda and substances of the HLTO meeting, in which D-8 Secretary General received a confirmation from Mr. Dilemre that he will give his utmost performance to chair the meeting next month. He said that it will be a privilege for him to contribute and assist fellow D-8 colleagues to reach a productive meeting.

Hisarciklioglu said the cooperation between Turkey and Egypt would make important contributions to the stability and economic development in the region

Turkish and Egyptian trade chambers unions have signed an agreement to set up a joint trade chamber to boost business between the two countries, as reported by the Turkish agency, Anadolu Ajans.

The agreement was signed on Saturday by Rifat Hisarciklioglu, chairman of the Union of Turkish Chambers & Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and Ahmed al-Wakil, head of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, in Istanbul on Saturday in a ceremony also participated by Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohammed Rachid.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hisarciklioglu said the cooperation between Turkey and Egypt would make important contributions to the stability and economic development in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Hisarciklioglu said trade volume between the two countries had reached over three billion U.S. dollars from 320 million USD in 2004 after a free trade agreement was signed.

“We will continue to work to boost that figure even further. Our goal is to achieve 10 billion USD,” Hisarciklioglu said.

Hisarciklioglu said he expected Egypt to join in a free trade zone planned to be established between Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

“The joining of Egypt in this project would make the Eastern Mediterranean a wide free trade zone,” he said.

Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohammed Rachid said on his part that the trade volume between the two countries had increased 10 times over the last five years, adding that the establishment of joint trade chamber would make a significant contribution to economic cooperation.

Ahmed al-Wakil, head of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, said over 200 Turkish companies had made investments in Egypt, which offered jobs to some 40 thousand people.

D-8 Secretary General met with President of AtlasJet to follow up the potentials exploration talks with D-8 member countries, and Indonesian Tourism Ministry

In order to follow up the discussion that was facilitated by D-8 Secretariat between the Turkish reputable aviation company, AtlasJet, with the Indonesia Tourism Minister on early July this year, Secretary General, Mr. Widi Pratikto paid a courtesy visit to AtlasJet headquarter in Istanbul.

Mr. Pratikto was welcomed warmly by Mr. Ali Murat Ersoy, the President of AtlasJet, with whom he had a lengthy and productive talk about the potentials waiting to be unrevealed among D-8 Countries, as well as bilaterally with the Indonesian aviation sector. Mr Pratikto conveyed the enthusiasm on the side of the Indonesian Tourism ministry to explore any possibilities with AtlasJet in the opening of new routes from Istanbul to Bali or nearby destinations, such as Lombok. “Indonesia has a rich underwater scenes for diving enthusiasts and also many wonderful and peaceful views of the nature in the eastern part of the country, which I believe can be a magnet for Turkish tourists,” said Mr Pratikto.

Mr. Ersoy said that he is aware that Indonesia has a huge tourism potential, and that the number of tourist visiting Indonesia from Turkey should be increased more to match this potential. “For example, at the moment Turkish tourist loves Bali island, because it is a perfect destination for honeymooners,” he said. “But we want to promote not only Bali, but also other new gems of Indonesian landscapes in other regions,” Mr. Ersoy added.

He said that his company is preparing a study proposal for the new route opening from Turkey, and shall be in contact with D-8 Secretariat and Indonesian Tourism Ministry to seriously explore this opportunities. He said that AtlasJet shall officially send the study proposal to D-8 Secretariat soon. He also added that his company shall actively participate in the upcoming D-8 Working Group meeting in Civil Aviation which will be held in Antalya, Turkey, on November 26-28, 2010.

As previously known, the Turkish member in D-8 Civil Aviation Cooperation, which is at the same time is the national flag carrier, the Turkish Airlines, has officially opened the new direct route serving passangers from Istanbul to Jakarta on September 2009.The route has now became one of the fastest growing route of the airlines.

D-8 Secretariat, in cooperation with D-8 Federation of Chamber of Commerce, has published a compilation of 2011-2012 Trade Shows in D-8 member countries for easy reference of D-8 Community.

This compilation can be found in the public download are of this website (click here), under the “Private Sector Information” directory.

D-8 Secretary General, Widi Pratikto (left), met with Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Turkey, Mr Ali Ariduru (right) to talk about energizing potential cooperation in D-8 Civil Aviation

With the mission to energize the ongoing cooperation in Civil Aviation sector among member countries, D-8 Secretary General, Widi Pratikto, recently paid a courtesy visit to the capital of Turkey, Ankara, to meet the D-8 Coordinator of civil aviation cooperation, the Turkish Directorate General for Civil Aviation. In the visit, Mr. Pratikto held talks with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Turkey, Mr Ali Ariduru, who warmly welcomed and congratulated Pratikto on his new appointment as the Secretary General of the Organization.

Since its establishment in 2007, the D-8 Working Group for Co-operation in Civil Aviation had met three times in Antalya (Turkey), Isfahan (Iran) and Bali (Indonesia). With the purpose to enable the parties to cooperate and coordinate amongst themselves as well as with ICAO and other related regional organisations and international institutions, the D-8 Civil Aviation Cooperation based its mechanism on the effeciency of a number of organs, such as the Working Group, and six Task Forces, namely: Safety and Security; Rulemaking Activities and Legal Issues; Commercial Issues; Air Navigation and Air Traffic Management; Training and Capacity Building; and Aviation Medical Licensing Standards and Communicable Diseases through Air Travel.

Eventhough the cooperation so far has resulted in the varieties of tangible cooperations among member countries, Mr. Ariduru also raised a few of his concerns to the output of cooperation, especially with regards to the completion of formalization of the MoU on Civil Aviation which so far has only been signed by Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. He said that as Coordinator of the Working Group, he is expecting a more active participation of the rest of member countries to enable their respective authorities contribute positively to the final outcome of each cooperation in this sector for the benefit of D-8 Community.

Mr. Pratikto acknowledged this issue, and said that he will bring this into the attention of the rest of member countries which had not signed the MoU yet, and promised to act efficiently to expedite the solution to this obstacle. D-8 Secretariat has sent reminder to the member countries in this regard, calling the respected authorities in the member countries to pay attention to the matter and enable themselves to be involved more actively in the D-8 initiatives in civil aviation cooperation sector.

Mr. Ariduru told Secretariat that his authority will be pleased to offer the next Working Group meeting to focus on Task Forces within this year, provided that there is sufficient responses from member countries to the call of Secretariat.

Indonesia and Malaysia had met to sought ways to encourage bilateral investment to reach back the peak recorded in 2008

Indonesia and Malaysia agreed earlier this month to take measures to increase bilateral trade, including by increasing trade across mutual border areas and encourage bilateral investment.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed in Jakarta on Monday August 2, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said that by opening more
trade routes in border areas, the bilateral trade could be increased to at least US$15 billion this year.

She said the total bilateral trade value, which last year fell to $12.5 billion, had bounced back over the past several months. From January to May, the bilateral trade rose about 90 percent to $7.1 billion from $3.7 billion in the same period, last year.

“Given this positive trend, we hope we can reach the peak recorded in 2008 when the two-way trade reached $15.3 billion,” she added.

Manufactured goods were the largest exports to Malaysia last year, reaching $1.5 billion, followed by minerals with $1.3 billion and vegetable oils with $1.1 billion, the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia reported.

Mari said the meeting with her counterpart had also sought to encourage bilateral investment.

From 2004 to 2009, Malaysia invested $1.5 billion in Indonesia, the second-highest country to country investment among Southeast Asia countries that year. Most of the investment went to the plantation, telecommunications, banking and oil and gas sectors. Mustapa said he had discussed with Mari about how to encourage Indonesian businessmen to invest in Malaysia.

“The value of Indonesia’s investment in Malaysia is still very low,” he said. From 2004 to 2009, the total value of Indonesia’s investment in Malaysia was only $534 million.

“Indonesian companies mostly invest in tourism and manufacturing sectors,” Mustapa said.

In the meeting, he said he had conveyed aspirations from Malaysian businessmen, including about a 10 percent import tax applied to Malaysian products which he said was burdening Malaysian businessmen.

“We hope the Indonesian government can reduce the tax,” he said. “We also discussed some other non-tariff barrier issues to ease trade between the two countries.”

The meeting also discussed preparations to hold a joint committee meeting on trade and investment in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, in October. The meeting is expected to finalize the border trade agreement between the two countries.

Mustapa said that during his visit, he had also met with Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa.

News Source: The Jakarta Post

Indonesia and Turkey, both are D-8 member countries, are now beating the world’s biggest emerging markets by almost any financial measure, even while they may be too small to join the BRICs

Indonesia and Turkey are beating the world’s biggest emerging markets by almost any financial measure, even while they may be too small to join the BRICs.

Indonesia’s equity index climbed 22 percent this year and Turkey’s rose 13 percent, both hitting all-time highs on July 29. Credit-market rallies sent yields on the nations’ foreign- currency debt to the lowest levels on record, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global gauges show. The MSCI BRIC Index of shares in Brazil, Russia, India and China is still 41 percent below its peak after losing 0.6 percent in 2010.

Less than two years after the global financial crisis prompted concern Indonesia and Turkey may default, investors are betting lower debt, growing populations and rising profit will spur economic expansions that led Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill to promote the BRIC nations in 2001. While China’s gross domestic product is about 4.2 times Turkey and Indonesia’s combined, they lead the “Next 11” smaller emerging nations with the most potential to affect world growth, O’Neill says.

“There’s a paradigm shift in the way both countries have been governed and in terms of economic performance,” Amer Bisat, the former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund who helps oversee more than $1 billion as a money manager at hedge-fund firm Traxis Partners LLC in New York. They’re “large, extremely systemically important and stable,” he said. “The market is looking at them in a very different light.”

Biggest Bets

The largest emerging-market stock mutual fund managers, which oversee about $250 billion, boosted their holdings in Indonesia and Turkey to the top “overweight” positions among 21 markets in June on expectations the gains will continue, data compiled by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EPFR Global and JPMorgan of New York show.

The fund managers are turning optimistic as profit growth outpaces share prices in both countries, leaving the Jakarta Composite Index and ISE National 100 Index trading at price- earnings ratios about 20 percent below their pre-crisis peaks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Jakarta gauge advanced 0.7 percent today, while the ISE National index rose 0.2 percent. The MSCI BRIC index climbed 0.6 percent at 10:55 a.m. in New York.

Mark Mobius, who oversees about $34 billion as the Singapore-based chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd., said last month by e-mail that he plans to increase holdings of stocks in Turkey, where the firm already has more than $1 billion invested. In June, he wrote on his blog that Templeton has a “positive take on investment opportunities” in Indonesia, while Antoine van Agtmael, chairman and chief investment officer of Emerging Markets Management LLC in Arlington, Virginia, said on Bloomberg Television that the country is the most attractive among Southeast Asian markets.

Relative Valuations

The bullish bets are a turnaround from 2008, when investors shunned Indonesia and Turkey as the global economy fell into the worst recession since World War II. The Jakarta Composite and ISE National both sank more than 50 percent, the nations’ currencies weakened at least 15 percent versus the dollar and credit-default swap prices suggested a 66 percent chance of default for Indonesia and 52 percent odds for Turkey, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Indonesian stocks are becoming more expensive relative to other developing markets. The Jakarta gauge trades at 13.6 times analysts’ estimates for earnings over the next 12 months, near the highest on record relative to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which is valued at 11.3 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg since 2006. The MSCI BRIC gauge has a ratio of 11.

News Source: Bloomberg

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Financial and monitory coordination among member countries are backbones for successful implementation of D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement

As the 7th D-8 Summit was successfully held in Abuja on 4-8 July 2010, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria is publishing a post-summit publication to recap the achievements and success of the activities of D-8. D-8 Secretary General contributed a warm and encouraging message of congratulation and continous support to the implementation of all working programs at D-8.

Below is excerpt of the message by D-8 Secretary General, Widi Pratikto.

Every two years D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation holds its Summit. This year  with the gracious offer from Nigerian government, the 7th D-8 Summit was successfully held in Abuja on 4-8 July 2010. It was an honor and privilege for me to attend this august meeting and be appointed  as D-8 Secretary General.

13th Session of the Council and 28th Session of the Commission were held back-to-back to the 7th Summit in order to prepare its substantive documents and ensure its effectiveness. My colleagues and I at the Secretariat contributed efficiently in preparation of all meeting documents (i.e. draft agenda, reports, etc) which were put at the disposal of participants after incorporating views of the host country. Compilation of technical meeting reports as well as statistics and country profiles were prepared and distributed prior to the meetings for ease of reference during deliberations by member countries.

Abuja Declaration was drafted and offered by Nigeria for consideration and approval of Heads of State/Government. The declaration addresses many compelling issues within D-8 Community and around the globe. It specifically stresses on the partnership and trust among the D-8 members through expediting ratification of D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement, Costume Agreement, Agreement of Simplification on Visa Procedures as well as increasing and diversifying intra-trade through promotion of participation of private sectors in D-8 activities.

Financial and monitory coordination among member countries are backbones for successful implementation of our Preferential Trade Agreement. Thanks to the initiative of Nigeria, the D-8 meeting of  Governors of Central Bank was held in Abuja on 6 July 2010 to review and exchange such modalities. Once PTA reaches it operation phase, then such financial coordination will become instrumental.

Envisioning the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, it will be wise to look upon Action Plan for Implementation of D-8 Road Map 2008 – 2018, in which many areas covering Trade, Investment, Industrial Cooperation, etc are mentioned. The important issues for us is to follow up five Priority Programs, namely Trade, Agriculture and Food Security, Industrial Cooperation, Small & Medium Enterpise (SME), Transportation and Energy & Mineral. We should collectively focus our attention in these areas of cooperation which will bring about closer and more pro-active economic engagements. Indeed, the Role of The D-8 Secretariat in facilitating and arranging these activities will be vital.

We have covered many important technical and legal grounds so far. We still need to hold our hands together and dedicate ourselves even stronger to the lofty objectives of our organization for the benefit of our beloved nations, for years to come. In this regard, my humble and heartfelt appreciation are extended to all Nigerian officials for hosting such an important set of high level meetings smoothly and prestigiously.

We at the Secretariat remain committed to provide member countries with best of our efforts and services. We believe in the future of D-8 and will do our utmost efforts to implement its objectives.

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.