Islamabad: Pakistan is hosting in Islamabad on Thursday the 36th session of the Developing-8 Organisation for Economic Development.
The June 4-5 meeting of the organisation made up of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey will be inaugurated by Syed Tarek Fatemi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.
The D-8 Secretary-General Syed Ali Mohammad Mousavi will also attend the session.
This meeting is being organised during the extended term of Pakistan’s chairmanship of the organisation. Previously, Pakistan has organised four meetings of the D-8 in addition to two ministerial and one summit meeting.
The forthcoming meeting will take stock of progress made in five priority areas namely trade, industry, agriculture, transportation and energy, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
The meeting will also consider recommendations made by the D-8 Eminent Persons Group for making the organisation more effective.
Also on the agenda are issues to be taken up at the next meeting of D-8 leaders and foreign ministers.
Established in 1997, the D-8 works towards enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the member countries.
“Pakistan attaches importance to the D-8 as it has tremendous potential to open up wide ranging business and trade activities among the member countries,” said the foreign ministry statement.
The organisation reflects combined population of over one billion and a market of about $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion). The member countries envisage increasing intra D-8 trade to over $500 billion by 2018.
