The Government of the Malaysia hosted the 11^th Session of Developing Eight (D-8) Council of Ministers in Kuala Lumpur on 6 of July 2008. The Meeting was attended by Ministers and representatives from The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Arab Republic of Egypt, The Republic of Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Republic of Turkey. The list of Ministers and representatives is attached as Annex I.

1. Welcoming statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia

The Meeting was chaired by H.E. Dr. Rais Yatim, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia. In his opening statement, he invited all the D-8 Council Ministers to take stock of D-8 progress and call for Member Countries to re-orient its focus in strengthening its cooperation in ensuring the D-8 continue to be relevant in embracing the challenges of the current global economic development.

He emphasized that this could be done through greater involvement from the private sector. Member Countries are called upon to provide a more supportive mechanism in terms of providing hard and soft infrastructure, reducing barriers and encouraging matchmaking opportunities to facilitate greater economic cooperation. The text of his statement is at Annex II.

2. Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia to hand over the Chairmanship

The outgoing chairman of the D-8 Council of Ministers, H.E. Dr. N. Hassan Wirajuda in his handing over statement, highlighted the achievement of D-8 during the Chairmanship of Indonesia. He highlighted that Indonesia had undertaken a new approach and had successfully acquired the participation of the private sectors as well as the civil society through the programmes and activities that has been conducted such as in trade, micro-finance, takaful, energy and health. He also commended Member Countries who had ratified the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and urged Member Countries who had yet to ratify the PTA, Visa Agreement and Customs Agreement to ratify the agreements as it would further facilitate trade cooperation between Member Countries. The text of his statement is at Annex III.

3. Adoption of the Provisional Agenda

The Council adopted the agenda, which is at Annex IV.

4.         Statement by the D-8 Secretary General

H.E. Dr. Dipo Alam, the D-8 Secretary General reported the programmes and activities which had been undertaken by the Secretariat. He highlighted that the Secretariat had successfully fulfilled the mandate to strengthen and widen its relationship with the private sectors as well as increasing the cooperation with the international organisations. The text of his statement is at Annex V.

5.         Consideration and adoption of the Report of the 25^th Session of D-8 Commissioners

The Council considered and adopted the Report of the 25^th Session of D-8 Commissioners.

6.         Consideration and adoption of the D-8 Roadmap for Economic Cooperation in the Second Decade of Cooperation (2008-2018)

The Council considered and adopted the Roadmap for its submission to the Summit.

7. Consideration and adoption of the Statutory Documents on D-8 Secretariat

The Council agreed to adopt the Statutory Document as well as revised scale of assessment as recommended by the Commission.

The Council also agreed to recommend to the Summit the following:

I)     The next Secretary General will be appointed based on the principle of alphabetical rotation beginning with Indonesia effective 1 January 2009, as stipulated in Article 8.2 and 8.3 of the Statutory Documents; and

II)     For the incumbent Secretary General be reappointed under the provisions of the draft Staff Regulations.

8. Consideration and adoption of the Report of the 10^th High Level Trade Officials of D-8 Countries (10^th HLTO)

The Council adopted the report of the 10th HLTO Meeting by majority and noted the reservations expressed by Bangladesh which requested for 30% local value addition under LDC criteria and Egypt on the issue of the percentage of Value Addition. The Operational Certification Procedures (OCP) and its appendix, incorporating views from all Member Countries, were adopted collectively.

9.         Consideration of the Provisional Agenda and Programme of Work of the Sixth Summit

The Council considered and agreed to submit the Provisional Agenda as in Annex VI and Programme of Work to the Summit as in Annex VII.

10.       Consideration of the Draft Kuala Lumpur Declaration to be submitted to the Summit

The Council considered and submitted the draft Kuala Lumpur Declaration to the Summit as in Annex VIII.

11.       Report of D-8 Business Forum

The Council took note of the Report of D-8 Business Forum as in Annex IX.

12.       Consideration of the Report of the 1^st D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Tourism, Tehran, Iran, 12-15 May, 2008

The Council considered and submitted the Report of the 1^st D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Tourism to the Summit.

13. Date and Venue of the 12th Session of D-8 Council of Ministers

The Council deliberated on the issue and agreed that the Council should not convene at the sideline of major meetings such as the UNGA as previously practiced. The Council agreed that the 12^th Session of D-8 Council of Ministers will be convened a year from now in Kuala Lumpur. The date and venue for the 12^th Council of Ministers will be communicated through the Secretariat.

14. Considerations and adoption of the Report of the 11th Session of Council of D-8 Ministers

The Council adopted its report by consensus.

15. Any other business

The Meeting did not discuss any matter under this agenda item.

16.       Closure of the Meeting

The Chairman made a closing statement and thanked all delegates for their active participation in the deliberations of the Meeting leading to the successful conclusion of the Meeting.

The Chairman highlighted that more than 10 years had lapsed since D8 decided to come and work together towards strengthening the economic and trade relation.  The Chairman indicated that all Member Countries should seriously endeavour to find new ways of doing things so as to further enhance collaboration.  At the same time D8 needs to look at ways to foster a closer government-private sector kind of cooperation.  This will make D8 different from other established international and regional organisation.

The delegations expressed their profound appreciation to the Government of Malaysia for the excellent arrangements in hosting the Meeting and the generous hospitality extended to them.  They also thanked the Chairman for his wise leadership and commended the skilful manner in which he conducted the meeting that led to its successful conclusion.