TEHRAN DECLARATION
18 February 2004

1-We, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Group of Developing-8 countries held our Fourth Summit in a friendly and congenial atmosphere in Tehran on 18 February 2004. We reaffirmed our intention to achieve the goals and objectives of the Istanbul, Dhaka, and Cairo Declarations, and exchanged views on issues of common interest and concern and discussed future strategy for our cooperation.

2-We express the determination of the Member States to preserve and promote economic cooperation, peace, solidarity, mutual respect and tolerance.

3-We reaffirm the commitment of our governments to encourage dialogue and promote understanding among various cultures and civilisations aimed at reaching a global consensus, with a view to building a new order for the current millennium founded on common moral and ethical values of contemporary civilisation.

4-Globalization present opportunities, challenges and risks for developing countries. The impact of globalisation on development has been uneven and large numbers of developing countries have not fully benefited from it. Disparities between developed and developing countries are far from decreasing and have continued to be unfavourable for developing world as many developing countries are being marginalised. Efforts to narrow these disparities should be pursued vigorously to ensure a more balanced share of benefits from the globalisation process for these countries.

5-For developing countries to derive meaningful benefits from globalisation, new approaches to international cooperation are required, which emphasise the need for an international environment conducive to development including inter alia through the reform of the international financial architecture with a view to achieving greater transparency and increased participation of developing countries.

6-In order to attain economic growth and development, developing countries have undertaken economic reforms, which need to be complemented by favourable macro - economic measures. Therefore, we call upon the advanced industrial countries to continue to take positive macro- economic measures and policies to stimulate and ensure greater stability of the world economy, ensuring economic growth and the predictability of financial flows to developing countries.

7-We recognise that our own efforts towards development require increased contacts, collaboration and partnership with industrialised countries in various forms such as foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio flows, official development assistance (ODA), debt relief and trade promotion in order to overcome current obstacles to adequate resource flows.

8-We express our concern that the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference at Cancun failed to produce an agreement that would have addressed the development concerns and trade interests of developing countries. In continuation of the role played by developing countries, we reaffirm our commitment to display the same degree of interest and readiness in further negotiations under the Doha WTO round. We look forward to the continuation of the WTO process and consideration to be given to the specific areas of interest of developing countries, such as improving market access inter alia for our agriculture and industrial products as well as services and eliminating subsidies by developed countries in agriculture.

9-We call on WTO to apply non-discriminatory attitudes towards the application for accession and also urge all WTO member states to avoid any measures and practices contrary to the letter and spirit of multilateral trading system.

10-We reaffirm our resolve to consolidate cooperation and coordination among the member states and reaffirm our expectation from all international and regional organisations to take practical measures in order to expand cooperation in all fields.

11-We consider sustainable and balanced development in the moral, political, social, economic, cultural and scientific fields as vital for our countries and emphasise the importance of new and renewable energy resources by utilising new technologies including biomass/ hydro/solar and nuclear energy.

12-We underline the need for better coordination among the position of member states on matters related to the development of global economic system with a view to enhancing our Group’s role in the international economic decision process, as well as to make positive contributions to economic growth and sustainable development.

13-We have reviewed the progress achieved in the implementation of D-8 projects and programs since the Cairo Summit and we recognise the efforts of the commissioners to strengthen and revitalise the activities of our group and endorse all the recommendations made by the Commission at its special session, aiming at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Group.

14-With a view to maintaining the momentum in D-8 cooperation, we instruct the Commission to hold its regular meetings twice a year as provided in the Document “Structure and Functioning” and to take the necessary measures to ensure timely organisation and thorough preparation of the meetings and the programs in various sectors.

15-With a view to enhancing the efficiency of the activities of the Group, we also recommend that meetings be organised at the ministerial level in various sectors and for specific purposes as appropriate.

16-We call upon the member governments to take necessary action, by utilising appropriate occasions, including the commemoration of D-8 Day on 15 June as well as recommendations envisaged at the Special Commission Meeting to better project the image of the Group and its activities in their public opinion.

17-Taking into account the large potential for its expansion, we once again underline the importance of D-8 intra trade among the member countries. In this context, we welcome the speedy increase of nearly 50 % in D-8 intra-trade during the period 1999-2002, rising from USD 14.5 billion to USD 21.3 billion.

18-We underline the importance of developing necessary framework for further facilitating the intra-trade with the aim of eventually establishing free trade among the member countries.

19-We appreciate the convening of the three Expert Group Meetings on Trade Preferences, Custom Procedures and Elimination of Trade Barriers by Malaysia, the I.R. of Iran and Turkey. We also appreciate the establishment of a High Level Group of Trade Officials and the work done at its first meeting held in Tehran and invite the member countries to continue the work within the framework of this new Group in order to finalise the draft texts of the “Multilateral Agreement on Administrative Assistance on Customs Matter” and Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). We direct our governments to support the work of HLG of Trade Officials in trade and trade related matters and welcome the offer made by Pakistan to convene the next meeting of the Group.

20-Reaffirming the crucial role of the private sector in achieving the aims and objectives of D-8 cooperation in all fields, we welcome the step taken by the I.R. of Iran to convene, simultaneously with the IV. Summit, the Second Meeting of the D-8 Business Forum. We appreciate the work of the Business Forum and their dynamic approach to D-8 cooperation. We take note of its recommendations and call upon the member states to follow up by giving them serious consideration. We also welcome the decision by the Commission to institutionalise the contacts with the Business Forum in order to meet the need to have a greater interaction between the two.

21-We invite the member countries to expedite the ratification of the “Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedures for Businessmen” for its early entry into force and those member countries who have not yet done so to sign the Agreement and ratify it thereafter.

22-We appreciate the convening by Egypt of the First Meeting of Officials of Central Banks and Ministries of Finance and its recommendations, and welcome as well the proposal by the I.R. of Iran to host its second meeting

23-We encourage national banking associations to convene regular meetings to exchange expertise and experience and to address problems and obstacles impeding the enhancement of D-8 intra-banking relations as well as to jointly organise training programs and seminars on a regular basis.

24-In the industrial sector, while appreciating the manufacture of the prototype of the agricultural aircraft and its successful testing flights by the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), we take note of the fact that its serial production may be started when the market potential expands enough to make the project commercially feasible as well as the financial requirements are met.

25-We instruct the Commission to consider initiation of new projects in industrial sector with a realistic and pragmatic approach aimed at the optimum utilisation of available resources and capabilities in the member countries

26-We reaffirm the call on the member countries to regularly feed and update the required information in their national home pages in the Industrial and Technological Databank (ITDB) network as well as the following databases:

• Trade database (administered by Egypt)
• Virtual expert network which will be set up by Pakistan for exchange of information in the field of agriculture.
• Best practices website in the field of poverty alleviation (administered by Indonesia)
• Database on rural development (administered by Bangladesh)
• Website for exchange of information on the members’ expertise in the form of a catalogue of experts and institutions specialised in various forms of energy (administered by Nigeria).

27-We invite the coordinating country, the I.R. Iran to pursue its efforts in collaboration with ITU to establish a dedicated server for e-commerce for future needs, and encourage the member countries to develop their technical capabilities for the expansion of e-commerce and cooperate together in this field.

28-We recognise enormous opportunities of cooperation in the field of information and communication technologies and call for greater efforts to bridge the digital divide.

29-We endorse the planned activities for the year of 2004 as approved by the Commission.

30-We decided that our governments would closely follow up the implementation of the projects and programs and prepare a national progress report to be presented to the next summit.

31-We appreciate the endeavours carried out by the Executive Director to advance the goals of the D-8 Group and the efforts of the Coordinating Unit to provide effective services to the meetings and to expedite communication between the members. We recognise that strengthening the Secretariat would be important for furthering the aims and objectives of D8. To this end, while tasking the Commission to continue to examine this issue, we decide to review the existing arrangements including the scale of contributions before the end of the Chairmanship of the I.R. of Iran.

32-We express our profound appreciation to the Honourable President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and his Government during its chairmanship for providing able and effective leadership at a time when the world was faced with serious political and economic challenges.

33-We congratulate the Honourable President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and his Government for assuming the chairmanship of D-8 for the next two years and assure our fullest support and collaboration in furthering the aims and objectives of D-8 Grouping and deepening and expanding D-8 cooperation, as well as extend our profound appreciation to the people and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for their hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the success of the IV Summit.

34-We welcome with appreciation the generous offer of the Government of Indonesia to host the V. Summit in the year 2006 in Jakarta.