D-8 DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES

 

A GLOBAL ECONOMIC GROUP:  DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
Executive Director: Ambassador Ayhan KAMEL
Address: Müsir Fuad Pasa Yalisi, Eski Tersane, Emirgan Caddesi No:90
Istinye 80860 Istanbul/ TURKEY
Tel: 90 212 356 18 23 & Fax: 90 212 277 55 19

 

D-8 I. KURULUŞU D-8, Türkiye'nin girişimiyle 22 Ekim 1996'da İstanbul'da Bangladeş, Endonezya, İran, Malezya, Mısır, Nijerya ve Pakistan'ın işbirliğiyle düzenlenen Kalkınma İşbirliği Konferansı ile kurulmuştur. 15 Haziran 1997 tarihinde anılan ülkelerin devlet ve hükümet başkanlarının katılımıyla İstanbul'da Türkiye'nin dönem başkanlığında, Gelişmekte Olan 8 Ülke Zirvesi resmen toplanmıştır. II. ORGANLARI 1. ZİRVE Devlet/hükümet başkanlarının iki yılda bir gerçekleştirdikleri toplantılardır. D(8)'in en üst düzey karar alma organıdır. 2. KONSEY Üye ülkelerin Dışişleri Bakanlarının katılımı ile gerçekleştirilen toplantılarıdır. 3. KOMİSYON Üye ülkelerin kıdemli uzmanlarından oluşan ve eşgüdüm çalışmalarını yürüten kurul toplantılarıdır. 4. İCRA DİREKTÖRLÜĞÜ D-8 Grubunun çalışmalarına sekretarya hizmetleri sunan ve üye ülkeler arasındaki iletişimi sağlayan İcra Direktörlüğünü Türkiye tarafından atanan bir büyükelçi (Ayhan Kamel) İstanbul'da bulunan merkezinden yürütmektedir. 5. ÜYELERİ Bangladeş Endonezya İran Malezya Mısır Nijerya Pakistan Türkiye III. ZİRVE TOPLANTILARI Zirve Toplantıları, üye devlet/hükümet başkanlarının katılımıyla iki yılda bir kez düzenlenmektedir. 1. ZİRVE 15 Haziran 1997'de İstanbul'da düzenlenen Zirve'de, sektörler itibariyle faaliyetlerin koordinasyonu görevi belirlenen üye ülkelere verilmiştir. Bu kapsamda sanayi ve sağlık Türkiye'ye; ticaret Mısır'a; kırsal kalkınma Bangladeş'e; insan kaynaklarının geliştirilmesi Endonezya'ya; telekomünikasyon ve teknoloji İran'a; finans, bankacılık ve özelleştirme Malezya'ya; enerji Nijerya'ya ve Pakistan'a tarım verilmiştir. Ayrıca, bir Uluslararası Pazarlama ve Ticaret Şirketinin kurulması; yoksullukla mücadele; D-8 ülkeleri arasında Sınaî ve Teknolojik Veri Bankası Ağı'nın kurulması; D-8 Şirketleri Arasında Ortak Girişimleri de kapsayacak Tekaful (İslam Bankacılığı) modelinin geliştirilmesi; kıyı ve iç sularda kültür balıkçılığının geliştirilmesine yönelik işbirliği; bir tarım uçağının üretilmesi; Ortak İş Konseyleri ve Ticaret Odaları'nın kurulması ve uluslararası kuruluşlarla sıkı ilişkilerin oluşturulmasına karar verilmiştir. 2. ZİRVE 1-2 Mart 1999 tarihlerinde Bangladeş'in başkanlığında Dakka'da yapılan ikinci Zirve'de, Mısır tarafından koordinasyonu yürütülen Uluslar arası Pazarlama ve Ticaret Şirketi (IMTC)'nin kurulması sürecinde ilerlemelerin kaydedildiği vurgulanmıştır. Küreselleşme sürecinden zararla çıkmamaya yönelik önlemlerin hayata geçirilmesi; tarım uçağı prototipinin deneme uçuşlarının sürdürülmesi; Sulu Tarım Bilgi ve Gözetim Merkezi ile Sınaî ve Teknik Veri Bankası Ağı'nın devreye sokulması hedeflerinin gerçekleştirilmesi öngörülmüştür. Ayrıca, bilgi değişimi; ticaret finansmanı ve bankacılık önlemleri/işlemlerinin uyumlaştırılması; taşımacılık; işadamları için vize işlemlerinin kolaylaştırılması ile çifte vergilendirme anlaşmalarının kararları ve yatırımların korunması/teşvikinin hayata geçirilmesine yönelik kararlılığa dikkat çekilmiştir. Sürdürülebilir kalkınmanın, i) ekonomik kalkınma, ii) sosyal gelişme ve iii) çevrenin korunması, gibi üç etmene bağlı olarak gerçekleştirilmesi gereğinin altı çizilmiştir. Bu bağlamda, fakirliğin ortadan kaldırılması, gıda güvenliği, finansman-bankacılık ve sigorta konularının öncelikli olarak gündemde tutulmasına vurgu yapılmıştır. 2000 yılı sonuna dek koordinasyon hizmetlerinin yerine getirilmesi için sürekli nitelikli bir Koordinasyon Merkezi'nin kurulma talimatı Komisyon'a verilmiştir. Türkiye'nin koordinatör ülke olarak AIDS'i Önleme ve Kontrol Programı'na ilişkin önerisi Zirve'de kabul görmüştür. 3. ZİRVE 25 Şubat 2001 tarihinde Mısır'ın başkanlığında Kahire'de üçüncü Zirve düzenlenmiştir. Sağlanan gelişmeler ışığında, birinci Zirve'den bu yana gerçekleştirilmiş olan 30'dan fazla toplantı, çalıştay (workshop), seminer, eğitim programı, vb'nin, 2001/2002 döneminde aşağıdaki alanlarda sürdürülmesinin yararına dikkat çekilmiştir: Nijerya'da Enerji Çalışma Grubu toplantısı; Malezya'da özelleştirme konulu eğitim programı; Türkiye'de balık ambalajlaması çerçevesinde atık gözetim sistemleri ve sağlık kuralları/kalite kontrol süreçleri konulu eğitim kursu; Pakistan'da tarımsal verimliliğin artırılması-ikincil/organik gübreleme-çiftlik hayvanı gen kaynaklarının korunmasına yönelik biyo-teknoloji girişimi konulu üç workshop; Endonezya'da kırsal kesimin güçlendirilmesi konulu workshop; Bangladeş'te kırsal kalkınma konulu workshop; İran'da çevrenin teknik yönleri konulu çalışma grubu toplantısı ve Türkiye'de KOBİ'ler konulu workshop. Üçüncü Zirvede Cumhurbaşkanımızın sunduğu bildiride, aşağıda sunulan hedeflere ulaşılmasında uygulanacak politikalara Türkiye'nin tam destek verdiği belirtilmiştir: Önümüzdeki 5 yıl içinde D-8 içi ticaretin ikiye katlanması; Mısır tarafından Uluslar arası Pazarlama ve Ticaret Şirketi'nin kurulması sürecinin, İKB'nin mali katkılarıyla sürdürülmesi; İşadamları için D-8 üyesi ülkelerde vize işlemlerinin kolaylaştırılması; İş çevreleri, gemicilik şirketleri ve Armatörler Birliği arasında yapıcı ilişkilerin sürdürülmesi; Bankacılık işlemlerinin basitleştirilmesi ve uyumlaştırılması amacıyla merkez bankaları/maliye bakanları ya da ilgili makamların temsilcilerinden oluşacak bir komitenin oluşturulması; Ticaret verileriyle ilgili çalışmanın sonuçlandırılabilmesi amacıyla üye ülkelerin, ticaret bilgilerini düzenli biçimde sunmaları; Gümrük/ticaret işlemleriyle ilgili çalışmaların yoğunlaştırılması ve ticaret tercihleri ile engellerinin incelenerek, üye devletlerin uluslar arası yükümlülüklerine uygun bölgesel bir düzenlemenin gerçekleştirilmesi; Tarımsal amaçlı uçağın, ticarî bakımdan yapılabilirliğinin, üye ülkelerin ihtiyaçlarının, bu projenin finansmanına herbirinin muhtemel katkısının belirlenmesi; İran tarafından oluşturulan Sınaî ve Teknik Veri Bankası Ağı'nın, üye ülkelerce düzenli olarak beslenmesi ve ardından bölgesel bir server üzerinden, elektronik ticaret projesinin hayata geçirilmesi Konsey ve Komisyon tarafından aşağıdaki programların öncelikle hayata geçirilmesi benimsenmiştir: DNA kopyalama teknolojisinin paylaşılması (İran'ın sorumluluğunda); HIV ile ilgili teknoloji sunumu (İran'ın sorumluluğunda); Gelişmiş ülkelerde ortaya konulan, çevreye duyarlı teknolojilerin uygulanmasına ilişkin bilgi ve esasları içeren bir Çevre Ağı'nın oluşturulması (Bangladeş'in sorumluluğunda); Sigorta şirketleri arasında, işbirliği mekanizması oluşturma yollarını geliştirmek üzere, sigorta alanında gözetici ve düzenleyici makamların temsilcilerinin biraraya getirilmesi, eşgüdümü ve işbirliği (Mısır ve Malezya'nın sorumluluğunda); Bu hedeflere ek olarak, aşağıdaki çalışmaların da yürütülmesi karara bağlanmıştır: D-8 Websitesi'nde "En İyi Uygulamalar Envanteri" tasarımı; D-8 mikro-finans uzmanları arasında deneyim paylaşımı; Bilişim ve iletişim teknolojilerinin geliştirilmesi ve kullanımına yönelik olarak, D-8 ülkeleri arasında yardımlaşma; D-8 ülkelerinde insan kaynaklarının geliştirilmesi ve yoksulluğun ortadan kaldırılmasına yönelik mekanizma ve programlardaki eğilimleri içeren bir kılavuz kitabın yayınlanması; Yürürlüğe giren D-8 Ticaret ve Sanayi Odaları ile İşadamları Derneği İş Forumu İç Tüzüğü'nün, onaylamayan üyelerce de kabul edilerek etkinleştirilmesi; IDB, UN, UNDP, FAO, UNIDO ve WTO gibi uluslar arası kuruluşlarla kurumsal ilişkilerin kurulması. İlgili ülkelerce yapılan aşağıdaki öneriler üzerinde gerekli çalışmaların yürütülmesi karara bağlanmıştır: "Kapsamlı Bir Yaklaşımla Kırsal Sanayileşmenin Hızlandırılması" (Mısır); KOBİ'ler konusunda etkin işbirliğinin sağlanması amacıyla eylem programının başlatılması (Türkiye); KOBİ'ler için ortak işletmelerin oluşturulması (Mısır); Enerji üretiminde katı tarımsal atık kullanımında işbirliği (Mısır). 4. ZİRVE Dördüncü Zirve'nin, 2003 yılında Endonezya'nın başkenti Jakarta'da yapılmasına karar verilmiştir. IV. STRATEJİ VE EYLEM PLANI D-8 Grubunun oluşumu; dünya ekonomisi içinde, gelişmekte olan ülkelerin konumunu iyileştirmek; ticarî ilişkilerdeki fırsatları genişletmek ve yenilerini oluşturmak; uluslararası düzeyde alınan kararlara katılımı artırmak ve daha iyi bir yaşam düzeyi elde etmek hedeflerini öngörmüştür.

 DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
I. FACTS AND FIGURES

Objectives and guiding principles

D-8, also known as Developing-8, is an arrangement for development cooperation among the following member countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. It also adds a new dimension to enrich the social and economic relations of its partners.

Following the “Conference on Cooperation for Development”, on October 22, 1996, and after a series of preparatory meetings, the establishment of D-8 was announced officially by the Summit of Heads of State/Government in Istanbul, on June 15,1997 (Istanbul Declaration).

The objectives of D-8 are to improve developing countries’ positions in the world economy, diversify and create new opportunities in trade relations, enhance participation in decision-making at the international level, and provide better standards of living.

D-8 is a global arrangement rather than a regional one, as the composition of founding members reflects. Membership will be open to other developing countries subscribing to the goals, objectives, and principles of the group, sharing common bonds.

D-8 is a forum with no adverse impact on bilateral and multilateral commitments of the member countries, emanating from their membership to regional and international organisations.

Principal organs

The principal organs of D-8 are the Summit, the Council, and the Commission.

The Summit, which is the supreme organ of D-8 is composed of the Heads of State/Government of member states. It is convened once every two years.

The Council is composed of the Ministers in charge of Foreign Affairs of member states. It is the political decision making organ of D-8, and acts as a forum for thorough and comprehensive consideration of the issues.

The Commission is the executive organ of D-8. It is composed of senior officials appointed by their respective governments. Each Commissioner is responsible for national coordination in his/her respective country.

An Executive Director is appointed to ensure efficient communication, expedite the flow of information, and supervise the provision of services for the meetings.

Areas of cooperation

At the outset, ten sectors have been identified for cooperation and project development. They are: Trade; Industry; Telecommunications and Information; Finance, Banking and Privatization; Rural Development; Science and Technology; Poverty Alleviation and Human Resources Development; Agriculture; Energy; Environment; and Health.

On the basis of a division of labour for the coordination of D-8 activities, each sector is assigned to a member country.

Although 50-60 projects were originally proposed at the First Summit, in order not to spread resources too thinly, the following six priority projects were selected to be launched immediately:

• Establishment of an International Marketing and Trading Company
• Workshop on Poverty Alleviation
• Establishment of an Industrial and Technological Data Bank Network among D-8
• Establishment of Takaful Schemes (Insurance), including joint ventures between the companies of D-8
• Cooperation for the Development of Inland and Coastal Aquaculture
• Design, Development, Production, and Marketing of Agricultural Aircraft

D-8 countries have large, young populations with a growing and increasingly skilled labour force

D-8 member countries have relatively large populations. The total population of D-8 countries was around 800 million in 1997. This corresponds to some 13.5 percent of the world population. In four of the eight countries the population is well over one hundred million, in one country it is more than two hundred million.

After relatively high annual growth rates recorded in previous decades, population growth is gradually coming down in all D-8 countries, similar to the phenomenon observed in the rest of the world. Due to rapid growth in the past, a large part of their population will continue to be young for the foreseeable future, constituting a factor of dynamism in D-8 societies.

Moreover, an increasing number of these young people are being educated and trained in universities and research institutions in order to meet the requirements of high-tech industries for skilled labour.

Population in D-8 countries

	Total (millions)	Avg. Annual Growth Rate (per cent)
	1997	1980-90	1990-95
Bangladesh	122.2	2.4	1.6
Egypt	64.8	2.5	2.0
Indonesia	204.3	1.8	1.6
Iran	67.5
Malaysia	21.0	2.6	2.4
Nigeria	107.1	3.0	2.9
Pakistan	137.8	3.1	2.9
Turkey	63.7	2.3	1.7
Total	788.4
World Population	5,840.0
D-8 Pop/World Pop	% 13.5

Source: World Development Report, 1997,World Bank; World Population Data Sheet, 1997, Population Reference Bureau

D-8 countries have growing economies and relatively high technologies

Starting from relatively modest income levels, D-8 economies have displayed respectable growth rates in the recent past. In all countries, governments have undertaken reforms to remove the bottlenecks to rapid growth, liberalise markets and integrate better with the world economy. Growth in incomes, coupled with the already large and increasing populations, will create rapidly growing markets in the coming years.

In most of these countries, the private sector has become the driving force of the economy. As a result, large holdings have emerged in recent years. Some now rank amongst the first 500 largest companies of the world. Their partnership with well-known firms of the industrialised world in high-tech industries such as electronics, automotive, etc. has helped build a significant technological and industrial base in D-8 countries.

Gross National Product in D-8 countries

	GNP 1995 bn (USD)	Annual GNP Growth rate (1985-95) (%)	Per Capita GNP (*) 1995
Bangladesh	28,752	3.5	240
Egypt	46,525	3.1	790
Indonesia	189,434	7.6	980
Iran	98,000		1,540
Malaysia	78,189	8.1	3,890
Nigeria	28,938	4.1	260
Pakistan	59,754	4.1	460
Turkey	169,858	3.9	2,780

Source: World Development Report, 1997, World Bank

(*) When the purchasing power of US dollar and unaccountable services are taken into account, the figures in this column become much higher.

D-8 Countries have a relatively rich resource base

In addition to sizeable human resources, D-8 countries also possess significant natural resources. Some of these resources are currently being exploited, but there remains large natural resources yet to be tapped.

Bangladesh is the largest jute exporting country, contributing 80 percent of world’s jute exports. Tea and rice are the other main agricultural crops. The discovery of natural gas in the Bay of Bengal indicates large reserves ready for exploitation.

Oil and gas reserves are Egypt’s main natural resource. While the size of the oil reserves is relatively modest by world standards, proven and potential gas reserves are substantial. Among the various other mineral resources, phosphate reserves are sizeable. In agriculture, Egypt produces and exports high quality cotton, rice, sugar cane, citrus and vegetables.

Indonesia is rich in both agricultural resources, and in oil and natural gas. Mineral resources include coal, tin, bauxite, copper and nickel. Indonesia is a major producer of palm oil, coffee, cocoa, natural rubber and wood products.

Iran has one of the oldest oil industries in the region, with 9 percent of the world’s known reserves. Natural gas reserves are also substantial, the second largest in the world. Iran also has mineral resources including iron ore and bauxite.

Malaysia continues to play a major role in the world market as a supplier of tin and rubber. Petroleum and natural gas production is gaining importance. The country remains the world’s leading producer of tropical lumber.

Nigeria has oil reserves of high quality with a low sulphur content and light gravity. There are also relatively large natural gas deposits, as well as a wide variety of mineral resources. In agriculture, cocoa remains a significant export item, after petroleum.

While fuel resources are relatively modest in Pakistan, the country boasts an extensive range of non-fuel minerals that includes, among others, magnesite, limestone, marble, and dolomite. In agriculture, Pakistan is a major producer of cash crops, such as cotton and rice.

Turkey has a diverse resource base. Given abundant water resources, the country has the capacity to produce a wide range of crops. Indeed, Turkey is one of the few countries in the world, self sufficient in food production. Moreover, for her energy needs, Turkey relies to a great extent (46%) on hydro-power obtained from water resources. There exists significant underground resources such as bauxite, chrome, iron ore and lignite.

Oil and natural gas production in D-8 countries (end-1995)
	Oil		Natural Gas
	Production	Share of World	Production	Share of World
	(million tons)	Total (percent)	(bill. cubic meters)	Total (percent)
Iran	182.8	5.6	35.3	1.7
Egypt	46.0	1.4	13.0	0.6
Nigeria	93.8	2.9	4.0	0.2
Bangladesh			7.4	0.3
Indonesia	73.8	2.3	58.5	2.8
Malaysia	34.9	1.1	29.0	1.4
Pakistan			13.4	0.6
D-8 Total	431.3	13.3	158.6	7.5
World Total	3252.4	100	2119.6	100

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 1996

 

Proven oil and natural gas reserves of D-8 countries (end-1995)
	Oil		Natural gas
	Reserves (thousand mil.barrels)	Share of World Total (percent)	Reserves (trillion cubic meters)	Share of World Total (percent)
Iran	88.2	8.7	21.0	15.0
Egypt	3.9	0.4	0.6	0.4
Nigeria	20.8	2.1	3.1	2.2
Bangladesh			0.3	0.2
Indonesia	5.2	0.5	2.0	1.4
Malaysia	4.3	0.4	1.9	1.4
Pakistan			0.8	0.5
D-8 Total	122.4	12.1	29.7	21.1
World Total	1016.9	100	139.7	100

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 1996

The share of D-8 countries in world trade is growing

An indication of the dynamism of D-8 economies is their rapid integration with the world economy. In recent years, their exports and imports, which constitute about 4 percent of the world total have been on the increase. Within a six-year period from 1990 to 1996, total exports of the D-8 countries increased by 87 percent. During the same period, increases in imports were even higher, at 93 percent. These large increases correspond to annual average growth rates of 10.4 percent and 11.0 percent for exports and imports respectively.

These rates are well above the changes in world trade as a whole which was at 5.5 percent during the same period. This obviously is an indication of the growing nature of the influence of the D-8 economies.

Main trading partners of the D-8 countries are industrialised economies. The majority of exports are destined for USA, Japan, Germany, and to a smaller extent, to UK, Italy, and France. With few exceptions, most imports originate from the same countries.

Main export items of the D-8 countries vary a great deal based on resource endowment, climate, and soil conditions. The bulk of these exports are oil and gas, agricultural products and textiles. Among import items machinery and transport equipment, iron and steel products, raw materials for textiles, chemicals, and certain food items are more important.

D-8 share in world trade
                                                             

	Exports		Imports
	Millions of U.S. Dollars
	1992	1996	1992	1996
D-8 Countries’Total Trade	133,928	202,287	146,558	221,449
	Billions of U.S. Dollars
World Total Trade	3,731.4	5,219.8	3,861.0	5,338.5
D-8 World Total/World Total (percent)	3.59	3.88	3.80	4.15

Source: Direction of Trade 1997, IMF

 

Main commodities of foreign trade of D-8 countries (1992-1995)
	Main Export Items	Main Import Items
Bangladesh	Textile yarn, clothing, food & live animals, jute products, raw jute, leather, fish & preparations,tea	Raw cotton, petroleum & products, chemicals, textile yarn, machinery & transport equipment, food & live animals, iron&steel, crude fertilisers&minerals
Egypt	Petroleum & products, cotton yarn & textiles, chemicals, engineering & metallurgical, cotton,foodstuffs, vegetables	Machinery & transport equipment, live animals, animal prod., food & drink,chemical prod., rubber, leather,wood,cork,paper,base metals
Indonesia	Crude petroleum, gas, petrol.prod., plywood, textiles, shrimps, processed rubber,elec. appar. copper, coal, paper&paper goods, palm oil	Industrial raw materials, machinery,manufactured goods, chemicals, crude materials, food, mineral fuels
Iran	Oil & gas, carpets, fresh & dried fruits & nuts, industrial goods which are cast iron & steel, chemicals, textiles, refined copper	Road vehicles & machinery, iron, steel & manufactures, chemicals & pharmaceuticals, food & live animals, beverages & tobacco
Malaysia	Machinery & transport equipment, elect.components, telecom equipment,office mach.,processed palm oil,crude petr.,sawn timber,rubber,crude petr.LNG	Machinery & transport equip.,  manufactured goods,chemicals,  food & beverages, inedible crude materials, mineral fuels
Nigeria	Petroleum, cocoa beans, rubber, textiles, fish and shrimps, cocoa butter	Machinery & transport, manufactured goods, food & live animals, crude materials, animal & vegetable oils & fat, mineral fuels, misc. manufactures
Pakistan	Cotton yarn & cloth, garments & hosiery, raw cotton, synthetic textiles, rice, leather, carpet & rugs, fish & products	Non electrical machinery, petroleum & products, chemicals, edible oil, transport equipment,iron, steel &  prod., grains, electrical goods
Turkey	Yarn & textiles, iron & steel products, machinery & equipment, transportation vehicles, tobacco	Machinery & equipment, transport vehicles, petroleum, iron & steel products, fuel & petroleum, gas, rubber, chemicals

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Profiles

Currently intra D-8 trade is relatively small but has prospects for growth

The volume of intra-trade among D-8 countries is rather low. Indeed, in 1996 it amounted to only 14 billion dollars. In return, during the same period, the total trade of the member countries with the rest of the world exceeded 400 billion dollars. Thus, D-8 intra-trade represents only 3.5 percent of their total trade.

Even a cursory review of trade statistics of these countries reveals the potential for increased trade among D-8 countries. For this reason, the development of intra-trade is set as one of the primary objectives of D-8 cooperation.

Intra D-8 trade

	Exports		Imports
	Millions of U.S. Dollars
	1992	1996	1992	1996
D-8 Intra-tradeTotal	4,206	7,382	4,466	7,192
D-8 Countries’ Total Trade	133,928	202,287	146,558	221,449
D-8 Intra-trade/D-8 World Total (percent)	3.14	3.65	3.05	3.25

Source: Direction of Trade 1997, IMF

Note: Global financial crisis has to a certain extent affected the D-8 intra-trade and the share of member countries in the world trade in 1998-99.

DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
II.ISTANBUL DECLARATION

We, the Heads of State/Government of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey having met in Istanbul on 15th day of June 1997, and,

having reviewed the international political scene and concluded that the post Cold War international situation including rapid globalization of the world economic structure, has created both opportunities and challenges for developing countries,

conscious of the deep-rooted and sincere aspirations of mankind for peace, dialogue, co-operation, justice, equality and democracy,

having observed with deep disappointment and concern that instead of achieving these goals, new causes of tension, instability, conflict and confrontation have developed in various parts of the world and old policies of double-standards, discrimination and oppression have continued and in some cases intensified,

having confirmed that close and effective co-operation and consultation among developing countries is essential for world peace,

having exchanged views on the current global economic situation and its impact on our countries,

recognizing that the eradication of poverty requires ensuring universal access to economic opportunities that will promote sustainable livelihood and making basic efforts to facilitate access to opportunities and services for the disadvantaged,

noting that people living in poverty and vulnerable groups must be empowered through organization and social life, in particular in the planning and implementation of policies that affect them, thus enabling them to become genuine partners in development,

recognizing the need for a stable international macroeconomic framework, open markets, enhanced financial resource support and infusion of technological dynamism to sustain the competitiveness of our economies and to overcome their problems of integration to the world economy,

stressing the necessity for the international community to promote and implement policies to create a supportive external economic environment, through consultation and coordination in the formulation and implementation of macroeconomic policies,

stressing the need for a sound macro-economic management with emphasis on industrialization and human resources development and a constructive partnership between public/government and private sector,

considering the obstacles before our countries’ economies for a faster and healthier growth,

recognizing the need to overcome the existing trade barriers facing our countries,

having noted the insufficient share of our economies in the global trade activities as well as the inadequate role of our countries in the global economic decision-making,

convinced that through our joint efforts, revitalization of our mutual co-operation and co-ordination with the rest of the developing world, we can increase our contribution to the decision-making process at the international level and become partners in shaping world economic relations,

desirous of enhancing the insufficient volume of trade among our countries, as well as increasing the Group’s exports to the outside world,

expressing the resolve of our Governments for a wider use of modern technology and its effective contribution to the economic and social development of our countries,

committed to fostering a global partnership in the world economy based on a constructive dialogue through a democratic and participatory process,

expressing the immediate needs and expectations of our respective nations for a higher level of development in all its aspects,

being aware of our vast common potential and the proven benefits of closer economic co-operation,

stressing the crucial role of the business community in fostering co-operation among developing countries,

having acknowledged that the deep-rooted historical affinities provided a strong basis and framework for mutually beneficial co-operation,

underlining the imperative of respect for the purposes, principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter,

subscribing to the principles of consultation, coordination, transparency, equity, equality and respect for each other,

1. hereby decide to establish a mechanism for development co-operation which will be called Developing-8 (D-8),

2. further decide that D-8 will be a forum with no adverse effect on bilateral and multilateral commitments of the member states emanating from their membership to other international or regional organizations,

3. declare the main objective of D-8 to be socio-economic development in accordance with the following principles :

- Peace instead of conflict

- Dialogue instead of confrontation

- Co-operation instead of exploitation

- Justice instead of double-standards

- Equality instead of discrimination

- Democracy instead of oppression

4. decide that co-operation will encompass all areas, including political consultation and co-ordination at the international fora, and agree on a number of non-exhaustive areas of co-operation such as :

- Trade,

- Industry,

- Communication and Information,

- Finance, Banking and Privatization,

- Rural Development,

- Science and Technology,

-Poverty Alleviation and  Human Resources Development,

- Agriculture,

- Energy,

- Environment,

- Health,

- Tourism,

- Culture and Sports,

5. approve the Report of the Council which agreed on six priority projects to be launched immediately,

6. encourage the establishment of Joint Business Councils among the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and other related bodies of the member countries with a view to initiating action-oriented projects of co-operation and promoting concrete transactions within the business community in accordance with the principles and objectives of D-8,

7. decide that D-8 be a global forum whose membership will be open to other developing countries, subscribing to the goals, objectives and principles of the group and sharing common bonds,

8. express our collective resolve to co-operate with both the developing and economically developed countries in the realization of the above-mentioned goals,

9. decide that an appropriate mechanism be established to liaise with other relevant international organizations, particularly with the Organization of Islamic Countries,

10. approve the Council document on the Structure and Functioning of D-8,

11. welcome the decision of the Government of Turkey to appoint an Executive Director to provide coordination during its Chairmanship of D-8, and express deep appreciation for the generous offer by Turkey to provide facilities for Executive Director in Istanbul and meet its expenses during that period,

DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
III. DEVELOPMENTS TILL THE DHAKA SUMMIT

Since the First Summit, significant progress was achieved in the implementation of the priority projects approved at Istanbul. Several working group meetings, workshops, seminars were successfully organised in relation to these projects.

The Commission monitored at its V. and VI. Sessions their execution. The Heads of State and Government having met at the Second Summit of Dhaka (1-2 March 1999) reviewed the activities of D-8 and appreciated the work so far done. They also gave guidance for the future and decided to launch new projects. Moreover, they extensively discussed on this occasion the developments in the world economy and the implications of the global financial crisis for their countries. They agreed on the need to establish appropriate safeguards to minimise the risks of globalisation and to ensure that its benefits were shared by all.

Amongst various projects, the prototype of the agricultural/multipurpose aircraft is at present under production. Its testing flights are planned to take place around the year.

The Aquaculture Information & Monitoring Center and Industrial & Technical Data Bank Network are expected to become operational soon.

Considerable work has been done for the establishment of the International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC). Moreover, pending its establishment, the member countries agreed for the promotion of D-8 intra trade to explore and take certain practical steps in the fields of exchange of information, trade financing and harmonisation of banking measures, shipping, easing visa arrangements for businessmen, conclusion of agreements on double taxation and protection/encouragement of investments, etc.

Poverty alleviation, food security and finance-banking-insurance being amongst the important topics of cooperation drew special attention from the member countries.

DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
IV. DHAKA DECLARATION

1. We, the Heads of State and Government of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey met in Dhaka on 1-2 March 1999 for the Second D-8 Summit.

2. We reaffirmed our commitment to the principles, purposes and objectives of D-8 and pledged to continue to work toward achieving them through the implementation of projects and other programmes of cooperation that are of vital interest to our peoples.

3.We reaffirm that D-8 forum will be consistent with the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly on economic and technical cooperation among developing countries, and on strengthening of South-South Cooperation. The D-8 is a forum of functional cooperation, which would exploit the elements of comparative advantage, complementarity, economies of scale and commonality of interests so that real benefits can accrue to our peoples.

4. We reviewed the developments in the world economy since we last met in Istanbul in June 1997. The global financial crisis, in particular the severity of the crisis in Asia, has highlighted weaknesses in the global economic and financial system. It also provided a clear message that for the effective functioning of the market economy, governments must play a positive role in the development and management of the international financial institutions, systems and infrastructure. While recognising the responses by the international institutions to the crisis, we are concerned over the lack of progress in terms of concrete measures to implement many proposals that have been made to reform and strengthen the international financial system. There is a compelling need for reforms to guard against possible recurrence of such crises as well as new threats of instability and protectionism. Such reforms should be a global effort with the participation of developing countries, so that diverse experiences, problems and circumstances of countries at different stages of development are taken into account.

5. We considered globalisation not as an abstract process but a reality that affects the lives of all, and to which all countries must adapt. Globalisation, in our view, has great potential as an engine of development and growth and has yielded considerable benefits in the decade of 1990s. While we acknowledged the benefits of globalisation, it is important to recognise its accompanying risks of destabilisation and increased inequality between developed and developing countries, particularly the Least Developed ones, and within countries. There is need to address all aspects of globalisation, including financial liberalisation, and to establish appropriate safeguards to minimise the risks and to ensure that benefits of globalisation are shared by all.

6. We decided to consult with relevant international institutions both to minimise the effects of the global financial crisis and also to contribute to efforts aimed at reforms in the international financial system in cooperation with other developing countries, whenever appropriate. We also support the call for greater transparency and disclosure. This should also apply to all those in the public sector as well as the private sector, particularly large market players, such as hedge funds.

7. We agreed on the imperative of sustainable development, which essentially comprises the triad of economic development, social development and environmental protection.

8. We recognise trade as a vital area of international economic activity. An equitable global trading regime, while benefiting both developed and developing countries should take fully into account the conditions of developing countries through appropriate measures. The emergence of a rule-based trading regime, as institutionalised in the WTO, is a welcome step towards the effective and beneficial integration of countries into the global economy.

9. We welcome the decision of the Second WTO Ministerial Meeting in Geneva last year to work towards improving coherence in international economic policy making. At the same time, we urge that the Third Ministerial Meeting to be held later this year, decide on the work programme to achieve overall balance of interests of all members of the WTO on concrete measures designed to help countries that are particularly disadvantaged in the global marketplace.

10. The special concerns of countries that are constrained by structural weaknesses and also have to contend with tariff and non-tariff barriers when seeking access to markets in developed countries should be meaningfully addressed. We emphasise the need to provide adequate resources to developing countries for investment and institutional capacity building to enable them to better deal with the challenges of a globalised economy and open trading system. We urge developed countries and the WTO to undertake a definitive technical assistance programme to developing countries that have special problems to enable them to meet their commitments. The full implementation by developed countries of the special and differential provisions in all spheres provided for in the Agreements should be pursued. We also underscore the need for developed countries to implement their earlier commitments in accordance with the Uruguay Round Agreements.

11. We are of the view that the respective roles of the government and the private sector are complementary, and that there can be synergy from close cooperation between the two. We recognise the growing importance of the private sector in the development process and the fact that a vigorous, dynamic private sector is indispensable for sustained growth. The governments have a vital role to play in improving social conditions and expanding social opportunities by appropriate measures in key-sectors. The governments must continue to pursue sound and stable macro-economic policies.

12. Recognising the importance of greater understanding and exchanges between different cultures, we welcomed the idea of designating the year 2001 as the Year for Dialogue among Civilisations which was adopted at the 53^rd UN General Assembly at the initiative of the President of Iran.

13. We emphasised the importance of access to world markets, greater inflows of foreign investments and larger external assistance and alleviation of foreign debt burden to supplement our own efforts at development in all its aspects.

14.We recognise that trade among the D-8 is a most promising area of cooperation, the potential of which is yet to be fully tapped. In this context, we directed the Commission to further explore the possibilities of promoting trade among the D-8 member countries, among others, through the convening of a meeting of Ministers of Commerce/Trade and Economy at an early date and explore those possibilities.

15. Given the pivotal role of the private sector in the promotion of cooperation among the D-8, we are of the view that simultaneous or parallel meeting of a Business Forum, involving entrepreneurs of the D-8 member-states, with D-8 Summits could help develop the much needed partnership for development. We appreciated the initiative of Egypt to convene simultaneously with our next Summit in Cairo, the First D-8 Business Forum. In preparation for the Forum, the participants should be encouraged to come with specific proposals for expanding trade and setting up joint ventures.

16. We also instructed the D-8 Commission to study in cooperation with the private sectors, the possibilities of convening a meeting of businessmen before the next summit and the possibility of establishing a Federation of D-8 Chambers of Commerce and Industries.

17. We commended all the D-8 Governments for their initiatives in regard to the priority areas of cooperation and the projects assigned to them. We invite the member countries to expedite the implementation of the priority projects so that these could be functional at the earliest possible time. In selecting projects in various sectors, we should adopt a pragmatic and flexible approach aimed at the optimum utilisation of the available resources and capabilities. In this regard, we underlined the need of applying the new modality for implementing project of cooperation among the D-8 which would allow for their execution by other member countries, in consultation with the coordinating countries. The member countries should also indicate as far as possible their priorities in relation to each sector to facilitate the selection of suitable projects and programmes for cooperation.

18. We welcomed the ongoing work on Trade, coordinated by Egypt, in the endeavour to set up an International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC) as well as in developing other trade facilitating measures such as trade financing, customs simplification and mobility of business people aiming at enhancing trade among the D-8 member countries. In this regard, we pledge to direct the competent authorities in our respective countries to take all possible measures to strengthen the exchange of information, trade support and shipping, for the promotion of trade within the D-8. In this respect, we welcome the offer by Egypt to host the meetings on trade and trade related matters, the first of which will be held in April 1999. We also welcome the offer of Malaysia to host a Seminar for officials of the D-8 countries in the area of trade facilitation in Kuala Lumpur in 1999.

19. We are assured by Turkey that the design and production of the agriculture aircraft prototype should be completed in the last quarter of 1999. The market potential for the aircraft needs to be determined for any changes to be made on the design of the aircraft to make it a multipurpose civilian aircraft in the future. The multifunctional usage concept of the aircraft needs also to be determined in line with the requirements of the member countries. Based on these requirements, necessary engineering change studies should commence on the prototype aircraft. Serial production of the aircraft will start according to the work-sharing principles already agreed upon.

20. We expect the Industrial and Technological Data Bank Network coordinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran to be functional by July 1999. In this respect, we urge the member countries to expedite the implementation of their part, so that the project could be operational in time and hope that all countries will utilise this service to enhance cooperation among themselves. We should also encourage the member countries to freely use Internet and e-mail service for the exchange of information between their respective networks or centers of excellence in each sector.

21. We also expect the national aquaculture information and monitoring centers to start functioning by July1999 and that the Directory of Scientists, Experts, Institutions and Registered Businesses in the private sector pertaining to aquaculture, being compiled by Pakistan, be completed as soon as possible.

22. We appreciate the initiative of Pakistan to organise a workshop by mid-1999 to identify projects in the agricultural sector with special reference to food security.

23.We directed the Commission to follow-up expeditiously on the implementation of the priority project on Rural Industrialisation, decided by the Sixth Meeting of the D-8 Commissioners, based on the conclusion of the report of the Working Group on Rural Development that was organised by Bangladesh. We expect Bangladesh and Egypt to finalise the arrangements for the project.

24. We welcomed the offer by Indonesia to host a joint meeting of experts and decision makers on social safety nets in the year of 1999 as recommended by the Workshop on Poverty Alleviation and Human Resources Development held in Jakarta in 1998 and adopted by the Sixth Meeting of the D-8 Commissioners.

25. We also welcomed the commitments by Nigeria to convene a meeting of the Working Group on Energy in the near future. In this context, we appreciate the readiness of Indonesia to organise, in coordination with Nigeria, training programmes on micro-hydro power plants, solar systems for isolated villages and small-scale mining.

26. We instructed the Commission to begin work on result-oriented projects, as proposed by Turkey, in the field of Environment. This is an area which involves governments, private sectors and other interest groups.

27. We also instructed the Commission to study the proposal of D-8 Technical Consulting Association as a result-oriented project which was first proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran before the Sixth Meeting of the D-8 Commissioners.

28. We appreciate the measures taken by Turkey, as the Coordinating Country, for the Health sector to initiate cooperation among the member countries in AIDS Prevention and Control Programmes.

29. We endorsed the proposal to enhance the capacity of an existing re-takaful company to meet the needs of the D-8 member countries. In this connection, we welcomed the Malaysia’s offer to convene a workshop in June this year in Kuala Lumpur to draw up the modus operandi and to formulate appropriate strategies to promote takaful and re-takaful. In respect of training, we further welcomed the Malaysia’s offer to conduct courses in conventional insurance and takaful as well as to conduct training programmes, seminar and attachment programmes in Islamic banking and finance, to enhance cooperation amongst the member countries.

30. We agreed on the need to create a permanent unit (coordinating center) to fulfil conference and secretarial services and instructed the Council of Ministers to finalise this matter before the end of 2000. We expressed deep appreciation for the generous offer of Turkey to continue to provide facilities for the temporary Secretariat of the D-8 in Istanbul. We deeply value the excellent services that have been provided by this small Secretariat and the current Executive Director. We are of the view that this has proven invaluable in following-up on our discussions and decided that the mandate of the Executive Director be extended till the year 2000.

31. We express our deepest appreciation to the President and the Government of Turkey for providing able and effective leadership of the D-8 Group during the period of Chairmanship of Turkey.

32. We extend our appreciation to the people and Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the successful holding of the Second D-8 Summit.

33. We welcome with appreciation the generous offer of the Government of Egypt to host the third D-8 Summit in the year 2001 in Cairo.

DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
V.DEVELOPMENTS SINCE THE SECOND SUMMIT (DHAKA)
AND DECLARATION OF THE THIRD SUMMIT (CAIRO)

The D-8 member states undertook intensive work during this period. Indeed, since the Dhaka Summit twenty-four meetings at technical level in the form of working groups, seminars, workshops, training courses were organized in return to ten meetings held during the previous period. (The list is in the annex). As detailed herebelow, significant progress has been achieved in D-8 cooperation.

The Commission which is the main executive body of D-8 held four meetings on 22-23 February 2000 in Dhaka, on 15 September 2000 in New York, on 16-17 January 2001 in Dhaka and on 22-23 February 2001 in Cairo. The first two were regular meetings to review the progress achieved in various fields (the decisions are attached herewith). The last two meetings of the Commission were rather designed to prepare the Cairo Summit while also reviewing the activities undertaken in several sectors (As no decision was adopted during these two meetings, their reports are in the attachment).

The Council of Foreign Ministers met twice during this period on 15 September 2000 and 24 February 2001 immediately after the meetings of the Commission. (The decisions of the first and the report of the second are in the annex).

Finally, the III. Summit took place on 25 February 2001 in Cairo. (The text of the Cairo Declaration is also attached).

There is a growing interest on the part of international and regional organizations in the activities of D-8. The D-8 has already initiated contacts with the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to establish formal links with it. This subject is a matter of priority since all the D-8 countries are also the members of this organisation. Moreover, the D-8 represents over 55% of the total foreign trade of the OIC countries with the world, nearly 60% of their total GDP and 65% of their population. The establishment of a close link with the OIC is expected to also give a boost to overall cooperation among the OIC countries. Meanwhile, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) indicated its readiness to contribute to the financing of some D-8 projects.

D-8 also started to contact with other international organisations and institutions such as UNIDO, FAO, International Trade Center, International Telecommunication Union, to benefit from their technical assistance and expertise, and invited their experts to some D-8 meetings. Moreover, upon the invitation of the UNDP, the D-8 took part in the meeting of the High Level Forum on South-South Cooperation on Science and Technology, which was jointly organized by the UNDP and the Republic of Korea in Seoul on 14-17 February 2000. At the Cairo Summit, the Heads of State/Government instructed the Commission to consider institutional relationship with international/regional organizations especially IDB, UN, UNDP, FAO, UNIDO and WTO.

A summary of the D-8 activities in each sector since the Dhaka Summit is given herebelow.

TRADE

The development of trade is the most important and promising area for cooperation, taken to account that the total volume of D-8 trade with the whole world is around USD 450 billion where as the intra-trade hardly reaches USD 14 billion. These figures testify the great potential for the promotion of trade among the D-8 member states.

For this reason, the Heads of State/Government decided at the First Summit held in Istanbul in June 1997 to establish an International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC) as a matter of priority. Three expert group meetings were organized in Cairo in April 1999, January 2000 and February 2001 (the last one taken place just before the Cairo Summit) to discuss all the aspects of the project (i.a. the scope of its activities, structure, financing, legal basis etc.) as well as to consider other trade related issues.

IMTC project:

The Commission approved the terms of reference of the feasibility study of the IMTC. The Islamic Development Bank made a major contribution to the financing of this study. The feasibility study prepared by the consultant firm, FINBI, was discussed at the last session (X.) of the Commission. The member countries agreed on the following terms for the establishment of this company:

• IMTC should be a private sector project in the form of a joint stock company operating in a free zone.
• Each country should have equal share to reflect benefits, responsibilities and representation.
• The government should encourage the private sector to take the necessary steps for the creation of the company and to utilize its services.
• The government may join it, if they wish, with the provision that they can not have such a big share as to control the company.
• Trade promotion should be the primary focus of the company at the initial stage, trade support and direct trading to be undertaken at a later stage.
• The company should be established in the form of an Act of Incorporation.

The IMTC project is expected to be finalized and the company become operational in the coming months.

Trade Related Issues:

- An agreement on easing visa procedures for businessmen was prepared and signed on the occasion of the Cairo Summit.

- The member countries also agreed to establish a committee with the task of simplification and harmonisation of banking measures. This committee composed of officials from central banks/ministeries of finance is to meet every year on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

- The D-8 members also decided to intensify the work in the area of trade facilitation/customs procedures. In this context, the Heads of State/Government instructed the Commission at their Cairo Meeting to study trade preferences and the issue of trade barriers within D-8 as a regional arrangement in consistent with the international obligations of the member states.

- A trade database was placed in the internet to provide trade information, including importers-exporters, export and import goods, trade legislation etc..

- In order to facilitate the shipment of the goods within the D-8 area, it was agreed to establish a framework. This body is designed to bring together business circles, shipping companies and shipowner associations with a view to exchange information on the available ships and goods for transport, port facilities, the measures to reduce the freight rates and easing government regulations.

- In this vein, development of small and medium sized enterprises also received particular attention as they have an important place in the overall development of D-8 economies. A wide range programme of action was approved, under which workshops and seminars are to be organized.

INDUSTRY

The prototype of the agricultural aircraft, a project which was also decided upon at the Istanbul Summit as a matter of priority, was already manufactured at the facilities of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), its flight tests having also been conducted successfully. The Study Group, which was established to review the progress of this project, so far held seven meetings in Turkey and agreed upon the work-sharing principles.

Before starting the serial production, commercial evaluation has to be completed on the basis of the requirements of the member countries. A management committee composed of the representatives of the aircraft industries of the member countries has now taken over the work pertaining to the serial production of the aircraft.

TELECOMMUNICATION & INFORMATION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Following two expert group meetings and an additional meeting of coordination, all organised in Tehran, the Industrial Technological Data Bank Network (ITDB) was officially launched on 24 May 2000. The network utilises at this juncture internet facilities. In the network, each member has a national home page consisting of two parts, namely, the static one giving general information about each member country and the dynamic one furnishing data on R&D centers, consultants and contractors.

The member countries are to feed their national home pages with the information required and update it regularly.

On the other hand, the member countries are considering to utilize a dedicated server available within the D-8 area instead of the presently utilized foreign server.

Moreover, the expansion of the project for setting up a Cyber Mall using VPN to conduct e-commerce is also considered in collaboration with the ITU.

AGRICULTURE

As decided at the working group meeting held in 1998, the Directory of aquaculture experts, scientists, institutions, and private sector firms was printed and widely circulated to each member. Thus, the member countries may draw upon this Directory for exchange of knowledge, experience and possibly initiating joint ventures. Again in the field of aquaculture, an introductory course on brackish water was also organised in Kuala Lumpur. Moreover, a training course on the residue monitoring systems and hygiene rules and quality control procedures for fish packaging is planned to be organized soon in Turkey.

On the other hand, addressing to broader problems of agriculture, two workshops, one on food security and the other one on food safety were organized with the participation of FAO experts in Islamabad and Tehran respectively. Attaching particular importance to the development of agriculture, the Cairo Summit approved three proposals from Pakistan to convene workshops on “biotechnology initiative for increasing agricultural productivity, alternate/organic fertiliser, conservation of farm animal genetic resource”.

FINANCE -BANKING -PRIVATIZATION

Three meetings, namely, the International Workshop on Retakaful, the Seminar on Islamic Banking and Finance as well as the Training Programme on Conventional Banking were organized in Kuala Lumpur during this period, with an additional one on Islamic Banking (international training course) convened in Tehran. During these meetings, several recommendations were adopted. On the other hand, a training course on Malaysian capital market was organised also in Kuala Lumpur.

As regards the future programme of action, the Cairo Summit approved a training programme on privatization to be held in Kualalumpur. On the same occasion, the Heads of State/Government also endorsed the two proposals, the one designed to cooperate and coordinate between the insurance and reinsurance companies in the wake of globalization (Egypt) and the other to convene a meeting of supervisory and regulatory authorities in the field of insurance with a view to establishing a permanent committee (Malaysia).

ENERGY

Two training programmes one on Solar Energy Systems for Isolated Villages and the other on Micro-hydro Power Plants were organized in Jakarta and proved to be very beneficial. On the other hand, the Cairo Summit endorsed the Working Group Meeting on Energy which already took place in Abuja, Nigeria on 3-5 April 2001.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

As a follow up to the Workshop on Poverty Alleviation which took place in Jakarta before the Dhaka Summit, the Joint Meeting of Experts and Decision Makers on Social Safety Nets was also organised in the same capital city, during which important recommendations were made to the D-8 Governments. Moreover, a workshop on the empowerment of rural community through the use of appropriate technologies for poverty alleviation is planned to be convened soon also in Indonesia. On the other hand, the four new proposals for designing a “Best Practices Inventory” web-page, exchanging of expertise in the field of micro-finance, issuing a publication on trends in human development and poverty alleviation mechanisms and programmes and, utilising the information & communication technologies (ICT), all endorsed at the Cairo Summit, will be discussed on the same occasion.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

An expert group meeting which was organised before the Dhaka Summit considered several projects for cooperation in the field of rural development. This time, it was decided that amongst them, the project “Promoting Rural Industrialization by Comprehensive Approach” be implemented as a matter of priority. Furthermore, the Cairo Summit also endorsed another proposal to convene a workshop to discuss the issues related to rural development including poverty alleviation with special emphasis on social mobilization.

ENVIRONMENT

A working group meeting was organised in Istanbul, during which a programme of action was approved. Moreover, a meeting to discuss technical aspects of environmental cooperation is planned to take place in Tehran. It was decided that during this meeting, a proposal by Egypt for the utilization of agricultural solid waste in energy generation be also addressed.

On the other hand, the Cairo Summit endorsed a proposal by Bangladesh for setting up an environment network that could tap existing information and provide a basis for the application of environmentally sound technologies.

HEALTH

Before the Dhaka Summit, the Working Group Meeting on Health was convened in Ankara to discuss the issues related to AIDS prevention and control. The Cairo Summit this time endorsed two additional proposals by the I.R. of Iran for sharing technology in DNA typing and in HIV.

ROLE OF PRIVATE SECTOR

Recognising the paramount importance of the private sector in D-8 cooperation, the D-8 Forum for the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Business Associations was recently established. Its charter, having already been signed by six members, entered into force. Thus, the Forum legally came into existence. The first meeting of D-8 Forum was convened on the occasion of the Cairo Summit and proved to be very useful.

IMPLEMENTATION

The Heads of State/Government decided at their Cairo Meeting that a progress report be presented to the next summit in order to monitor the implementation of the projects, programmes, and decisions taken.

The next summit will be convened in Jakarta in the year 2003.

DECISIONS
VII. SESSION OF THE COMMISSION
(Dhaka, 22-23 February 2000)

COMMISSION,

Reaffirming the D-8 Guiding Principles,

Underlining once again the large potential of co-operation among member countries in the designated sectors of co-operation for the economic growth and social development of their countries,

Having met in Dhaka on 22-23 February 2000,

Adopted the following decisions,

AGRICULTURE

1. Expresses its appreciation to Pakistan for printing the Directory of Experts, Scientists and Institutions in the field of aquaculture, and noted its offer for developing a web page and to issue a revised version updating the information and adding data on businessmen operating in this field.

2. Requests the member countries to ensure widest circulation of the Directory to all relevant institutions and firms in the public and private sectors so that efficient exchange of knowledge, experience and expertise take place between those members with capacity and the others in need.

3. Welcomes the proposal of the Islamic Republic of Iran to insert the information provided in the Directory into the ITDB web site under the respective country pages in order to facilitate prompt and easy access.

4. Appreciates the successful course on Brackish Water, organized by Malaysia and emphasises upon the need to follow on the future line of action for including new areas of co-operation in the field of aquaculture.

5. Invites the member countries to organise similar training courses, seminars, etc. to share their experience and expertise, including the involvement of their private sector.

6. Expresses its appreciation to Pakistan for organising the Workshop on Food Security and endorses its recommendations.

7. Requests member countries to co-ordinate their position with respect to negotiations on food trade liberalisation in various international fora to prevent any adverse consequences of the liberalisation of food trade, affecting the socio-economic life of population of countries whose income largely depends on the production of food.

8. Requests member countries, who have not yet done so, to designate focal points in their respective ministries dealing with food & agriculture and disseminate the recommendations of the Workshop within their countries.

9. Requests the Executive Director to submit a progress report on the implementation of these recommendations of the workshop to the Ninth Session of the Commission, based on the information which will be provided by the member countries.

10. Welcomes the proposals of Egypt on aquaculture and food security and requests the competent authorities in the member countries to provide their views and comments on the following proposals:

a. Utilizing the water covered surface areas, coastal marine areas and marine areas close to the shore and strengthening intra D-8 co-operation.

b. Organizing training programs for cadres so as to utilize mixed fresh/ marine water resources in fish production via cage culture or semi intensive aquaculture.

c. Utilizing Marine Coastal areas via employing marine cage culture methods in the production of high export quality fish types, sea bream, sea bass, grey mullet and certain aquatic invertebrates, as well as specially making use of the areas where agricultural irrigation water resources are located.

d. Installing cages in marine water, as well as establishing shrimp and sea bass hatcheries in marine water so as to promote the fisheries industry with a view to decreasing dependence on natural fisheries.

e. Setting up a food dissemination system at the household level in the member countries.

f. Disseminating of information on food, agriculture and technology development among member countries through the respective national focal points.

11. Also welcomes the intention of the Islamic Republic of Iran to hold the following activities in the agriculture sector:

a. Research and educational workshops on fisheries.

b. A workshop on food security with special emphasis on food safety.

c. A joint fair on agricultural machinery and requests it to provide more details on these activities to the member countries.

INDUSTRY

12. Appreciates the work of the Study Group and congratulates the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for manufacturing the prototype of the agricultural aircraft.

13. Requests the member countries to expedite their response concerning open items’ list/parts of the agricultural aircraft, which may be supplied by them with competitive prices.

14. Further requests interested member countries to expedite the information on their quantitative need of the agricultural aircraft.

15. Welcomes the willingness of interested member countries to participate in the engineering work and serial production of the aircraft, as offered by TAI.

16. Invites TAI to finalize the issue of certification with the relevant Turkish authorities.

17. Welcomes the joint invitation by the Turkish Government and TAI to the esteemed D-8 Ministers of Industry to attend the inaugural flights that are reported to take place soon.

18. Requests, in pursuance of the Dhaka Declaration, interested member countries to inform TAI of their approximate needs of the multipurpose aircraft so that the design and engineering work may start on this new version.

TRADE

IMTC Project

19. Expresses its appreciation to the Government of Egypt for organising II and III Expert Group Meetings on Trade and the extensive work undertaken by the trade co-ordinator particularly on the IMTC Project.

20. Endorses the recommendation of the III Expert Group Meeting on Trade in Cairo on 19-20 January 2000.

21. Expresses its appreciation to the International Trade Centre (ITC) for its technical advise and contribution to the discussions in the Working Groups.

22. Approves in principle the reduced revised cost of the feasibility study.

23. Deeply appreciates the IDB’s offer to contribute to the financing of the feasibility study and requests Egypt to contact the IDB with a view to reconsider the terms attached to its offer, in particular the requirement that the proposed IMTC should not involve itself in actual trading except through the means of counter trade, as the Commission considers trading as the main objective of the proposed company and further requests the IDB to consider waiving the 50% ceiling attached to its offer.

24. Calls upon the participating member countries to declare their readiness to contribute, albeit in a symbolic amount, to the cost of the feasibility study as soon as possible, in any case before the end of March, in order to demonstrate their commitment to the project.

25. Gives in principle the authorisation to Egypt to sign the grant agreement with the IDB.

26. Requests Egypt and Nigeria, the African D-8 members, to approach the African Development Bank and Egypt as the co-ordinating country to approach other international financial institutions to seek contributions to the project so that the participating countries’ share in financing the feasibility study is minimised.

27. Decides that the project should become private sector driven, and accordingly requests the member countries to encourage their private sector through the chambers of commerce to participate in the project.

28. Welcomes the establishment of an independent D-8 Forum for Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Business Associations and calls upon the Governments to encourage their national chambers of commerce & industry and business associations to sign its Charter so that the Forum will start functioning soon.

29. Invites the newly established D-8 Forum for Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Business Associations to launch the IMTC Project among the D-8 Business Community on the occasion of the forthcoming meeting of the OIC Chambers of Commerce & Business Associations which will take place in Doha on 15-17 October 2000, and accordingly requests the D-8 member countries to encourage their businessmen to attend this meeting.

TRADE RELATED ISSUES

30. Expresses its appreciation to Malaysia for organising the seminar on Trade Facilitation and Simplification of Customs Procedures, held on 09-12 November 1999 in Kuala Lumpur.

31. Recommends the member countries to undertake in-depth study of the experience of ASEAN and APEC and, taking into account the findings of their study, also recommends to submit before the next session of the Commission to the Executive Director a description of their customs procedures coupled with their views and proposals to facilitate customs co-operation and eliminate existing obstacles.

32. Requests the Executive Director to transmit the views and proposals on simplification of customs procedures by the member countries in an analytical format to the International Trade Center (ITC) and further requests the ITC to examine the potentials of customs harmonisation within D-8 in accordance with the recommendation of the 3rd Expert Group Meeting on Trade.

33. Welcomes the proposal of the Islamic Republic of Iran to establish a Customs Association for member countries and requests the competent authorities in the member countries to provide their views and comments on that proposal, based on the information to be provided by Iran.

34. Requests those members, who have not yet done so, to submit their comments on the Iranian draft agreement on easing visa procedures for businessmen.

35. Agrees to consider at its next session, on the basis of comments by the member countries, the conclusion of a agreement for easing visa procedures for the businessmen, which will be open to interested member countries.

36. Recommends meanwhile the members to expedite issuing visas, as appropriate, for businessmen with the simplest possible procedures.

37. Calls upon those members that have not yet done so to engage in negotiations to conclude between them agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and promotion/encouragement of investments and requests the Executive Director to submit a progress report on the status of existing agreements.

38. Endorses the recommendations of the III Expert Group on Trade regarding the simplification and harmonisation of banking measures by central banks in line with the internationally recognised practices and the adherence by the banks to the criteria of banking loans as stated in the Basle Convention.

39. Requests member countries to recommend to their central banks to consider positively the proposal to set up a committee comprising the representatives of the D-8 central banks to meet alongside the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB.

40. Recommends the member countries, who have not yet done so, to utilise to the maximum extent the existing mechanisms functioning under the OIC and IDB (ICDT, OICIS NET) for the exchange of trade information.

41. Invites member countries, who have not yet done so, to designate their focal points which will be responsible for providing trade and business information.

42. Requests Egypt to prepare the structure and format of the proposed trade database and to circulate it to the national focal points through the Executive Director before the next session of the Commission.

43. Further requests Egypt as the Trade Co-ordinator to make this information available on its trade-point web-site, and also requests the Islamic Republic of Iran to put the database in the ITDB web-site.

44. Expresses its appreciation to Egypt for convening the First Expert Group Meeting on Shipping that was held in Alexandria, Egypt on 15-16 November, 1999 and endorses the recommendations adopted in the field of shipping, in particular, the designation by the member countries of their local focal points for exchange of information about ships and cargo, and establishment of direct shipping services between the member countries.

45. Welcomes the following proposals of Egypt in the area of Shipping and requests the competent authorities in the member countries to provide their views and comments on them:

a. The establishment of a committee comprising Shipping experts to discuss ways and means of updating available information about national flag vessels, cargo movement and facilities and conditions of the main ports in the respective countries, including through posting this information on the e-mail of the major forwarder to be designated by each country, and to be free of charge for the utilization of member countries.

b. The offer by the Egyptian Company for Maritime Transport to establish a liaison office on its own premises to be responsible for gathering information concerning the cargo movements, as well as freight tenders for interested member countries, and to be operated by local staff and fully covered in terms of expenses by the company.

c. Similarly, each interested member country would have to name a local liaison office, the expenses of which would be covered by each respective country.

46. Welcomes the proposal of Bangladesh to form a Shipping Business Forum involving entrepreneurs of member countries which could help much needed partnership on joint venture basis and thereby help necessary expansion and sustainability of shipping trade in the member countries and requests the competent authorities in the member countries to provide their views and comments on the above proposal.

47. Welcomes the readiness expressed by ECO Shipping Company to co-operate with D-8 shipping programme as conveyed by Iran.

48. Welcomes the offer of co-operation by the organisation of the Islamic Ship Owners’ Association which was conveyed through Egypt by the Secretary General of that organisation.

49. Underlines the importance of SMEs (Small and Medium range Enterprises) in the overall development of the economies of D-8 countries, and accordingly invites the member governments to encourage co-operation amongst their entities supporting SME’s.

50. Decides that the Republic of Turkey acts as co-ordinator in the field of SMEs.

TELECOMMUNICATION & INFORMATION AND SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

51. Endorses the recommendations of the Second Workshop on ITDB Project including the step-by-step Plan of Action and appreciates the work undertaken by the co-ordinating country (I.R. of Iran) in designing and constructing a fully dynamic web-site and web-based data base for this purpose.

52. Calls upon member countries to post their own information on different areas of industry, consultants, R & D etc. and to feed the web-site with as much information as possible on other programs and projects.

53. Requests the co-ordinating country to operationalize the ITDB web-site by May 10, 2000 and also requests all member countries to publicize the site to the maximum extent possible.

54. Requests the member countries, who have not yet done so, to designate their national focal points/administrators and provide their E-mail addresses at the earliest. The national administrators shall enter relevant information concerning their country in the web-site and will meet in Tehran one month before the launching of the web-site for final co-ordination.

55. Further Requests the member countries to submit through the Executive Director their views on the Iranian proposal concerning the three alternatives for the future utilization and expansion of ITDB, including the establishment of the private Data Bank Network, to the next session of the Commission.

56. While appreciating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach to ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and possible co-operation of ITU with D-8, encourages the I.R of Iran to continue its contacts with ITU for preparing a feasibility study on e-commerce among the D-8 countries, within the framework of assistance to developing countries through the ECDC (E-Commerce for Developing Countries) program, as well as other interested international organizations.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

57. Expresses its appreciation to Indonesia for organising a Joint Meeting of Experts and Decision Makers on Social Safety Nets held in Jakarta on 13-17 August 1999 and endorses its recommendations.

58. Underlines the importance of continued exchange of information on their social safety nets programs as well as their experience in poverty alleviation, and requests the member countries to follow up the implementation of the recommendations of the Joint Meeting as well as of the Seminar on Poverty Alleviation, also held in Jakarta on 16-19 June 1998.

59. Requests the Executive Director to submit progress report to the Ninth Session of the Commission on the implementation of these recommendations, based on the information to be provided on request by member countries.

60. Requests Indonesia as the Co-ordinator to consider presenting to the next Session of the Commission proposals on how to commence co-operation among member countries in the areas of human resources development and poverty alleviation, including training programs.

61. Welcomes the Indonesian initiatives to prepare the data of experts as well as to compile a compendium on activities and programmes relating to human resources development and poverty alleviation.

62. Welcomes the proposal of Bangladesh to share its experience in micro-credit, rural development and poverty alleviation.

FINANCE-BANKING –PRIVATIZATION

63. Expresses its appreciation to Malaysia for organising the International Workshop on Re-takaful (31 May-1 June 1999), the Seminar on Islamic Banking and Finance (2-4 June 1999) and the Training Programme on Banking (13-25 September 1999).

64. Endorses the resolutions of the International Workshop on Re-takaful and calls upon interested member countries to take necessary measures and actions to realize the objectives.

65. Urges interested member countries of D-8 to promote and encourage the active involvement of the private sector in establishing takaful companies so as to ensure the future of ASEAN Re-takaful International (L) Ltd. as a viable D-8 Re-takaful company, jointly owned and supported by the majority of takaful industry companies.

66. Urges interested member countries of D-8 to contribute towards the process of creating a conducive environment for the takaful industry to develop and prosper.

67. Invites Islamic insurance companies/financial institutions in member countries if any, to consider participating in the enlarged paid-up capital of ARIL to ensure that they become meaningful contributors to ARIL's business growth by becoming shareholders and participating in re-takaful arrangements with ARIL.

68. Appreciates the readiness of Malaysia to organise technical training programmes on finance this year and on privatization in the year 2001.

69. Takes note of the proposal of Egypt, that the Federation of Insurance and Re-insurers (FAIR), headquartered in Cairo-should co-ordinate between the various insurance companies that undertake Islamic Reinsurance Operations with a view to increasing intra D-8 co-ordination in the field of Islamic Reinsurance (Re-takaful).

70. Welcomes the offer by the Islamic Republic of Iran to hold training courses and seminars for the interested D-8 countries on Islamic banking.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

71. Decides that the project entitled “Promoting Rural Industrialisation by Comprehensive Approach” should speedily be implemented, and for this purpose requests Bangladesh the co-ordinating country and Egypt the sponsoring country to jointly prepare, if necessary, a revised version of the project in the light of comments received from member countries.

72. Requests these two members to approach UNIDO on the basis of the revised project to seek technical and financial assistance for its implementation.

ENERGY

73. Expresses its earnest hope that Nigeria as the co-ordinating country will soon convene the Working Group meeting on Energy.

74. Welcomes the offer of the Islamic Republic of Iran to organise an oil and gas workshop.

75. Expresses its appreciation to Indonesia for organising a Training Program on Solar Energy Systems for Isolated Villages (SESIV), held in Jakarta between 29 November till 1st December 1999, as well as a Training Program on Micro-hydro Power Plant, held in Jakarta from 22-25 February 2000, and endorses its recommendations and requests the member countries to inform at the Ninth Session of the Commission, through the Executive Director, of the actions taken on the implementation of these recommendations and in this respect hopes that D-8 as a group would take initiative to seek external funding for financing projects in the rural energy sector.

PERMANENT UNIT (COORDINATING CENTER)

76. The Commission discussed the modalities of setting up a permanent unit, in accordance with Paragraph 30 of the Dhaka Declaration. The members were deeply appreciative of the generosity of Turkey to provide the Executive Director, his staff, and the office and facilities up to the year 2000.

77. The Commission felt that, thereafter, the co-ordination should continue to be performed by a small establishment, as is being done at present, until such time the volume of work warrants a full-fledged secretariat. The members also agreed to make a yearly financial contribution to the tune of US$ 100,000, excluding Turkey, towards the expenses of the unit. Turkey is expected to meet the rest of the cost of the unit. The modalities of the contribution would be discussed at the next Commission Meeting, for a recommendation to the Council. It was also agreed that this would be a transitional arrangement, to be reviewed before the end of the Chairmanship of Egypt.

LIAISON

78. It was decided that Bangladesh as the Chairman of the D-8, the Islamic Republic of Iran as the Chairman of OIC and Malaysia as the host country of the next Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers would submit a draft resolution in general terms on the establishment of liaison with OIC and IDB, for the approval of the Foreign Ministers.

79. Requests the Executive Director to discuss with their secretariats the modalities of co-operation and to submit to the next session of the Commission the draft texts of memoranda of understanding which may be agreed upon ad referendum with them to spell out these modalities.

NEXT SESSIONS OF THE COMMISSION AND THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

80. Decides that the next session (VIII.) be held in New York, on the sidelines of the UNGA, to immediately precede the IV. Session of the Council of Ministers. The dates for the meeting would be co-ordinated by the chair country in consultation with the member countries.

OTHER MATTERS

81. Welcomes the offer made by the Islamic Republic of Iran to hold a meeting of the representatives of Technical and Engineering Consulting Associations of member countries in the first half of the year 2000 and with the active participation of the Islamic Association of Engineering Consultants, as a follow up to para 27 of the Dhaka Declaration with a view to consider the establishment of a D-8 Federation of Technical and Engineering Consulting Association and requested the member countries to encourage active participation of their private sector in this event.

82. Welcomes the suggestion of the Islamic Republic of Iran to use the D-8 databank network for the dissemination of relevant D-8 documents by member countries, where appropriate, under their respective country pages in order to facilitate their accessibility.

83. Welcomes the offer made by Turkey, acting as the co-ordinating country for environment, to organise a working group meeting on environment between the months of May and August in order to find out the priority areas of member countries for this purpose (Turkey will soon distribute a proposal containing a list of priority areas of co-operation) and also welcomes the proposal of the Islamic Republic of Iran to hold a meeting on the issues of technical co-operation in environment and co-ordination of positions of member countries in international fora regarding this issue. It is the understanding of the Commission that any member country may organise workshops, seminars, etc. in various aspects of the environment, once the proposed list of areas of priorities is agreed upon.

84. The Commissioners expressed their gratitude to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for its warm welcome and generosity and for the excellent arrangements for the Commission Meeting. They also expressed their deep appreciation to the Chairman for efficiently conducting the work of the Seventh Session of the D-8 Commission.

DECISIONS                                                                                                                              VIII. SESSION OF THE COMMISSION.                                                                                            (New York , 15-20 September 2000)

COMMISSION,

Having met in New York on 15-20 September 2000,

Adopted the following decisions,

PREPARATIONS OF THE CAIRO SUMMIT

1. Thanks the Egyptian Commissioner for his preliminary briefing concerning the arrangements of the Cairo Summit.

2. Recommends the dates for the following meetings:

The III. Summit (Cairo) 25 February 2001

The V. Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (Cairo) 24 February 2001

The X. Session of the Commission (Cairo) 22-23 February 2001

(Preparatory Meeting)

The IX Session of the Commission (Dhaka) Mid-January 2001

3. Requests the Executive Director to prepare in collaboration with the host country the draft text of the Cairo Declaration and to circulate it at an early date for the first reading at the IX. Session of the Commission in Dhaka.

INDUSTRY

4. Congratulates the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for completing the manufacture of the prototype of the agricultural aircraft with the equipment mounted on it and for undertaking all the necessary tests successfully, and appreciates as well the substantial work so far conducted by the Study Group in connection with this project.

5. Reiterates its thanks to the Turkish Minister of Industry and Trade for his kind invitation to the D-8 Ministers of Industry/Science & Technology to mark the inaugural flight of the agricultural aircraft and to discuss as well other projects for industrial cooperation, an event which was initially scheduled for 12-13 September but later postponed due to the prior engagements of some Ministers.

6. Welcomes the setting up of a Management Committee to coordinate the industrial activities in the project such as design, development, certification, work-sharing, manufacturing, marketing, sales and after-sales support, its first meeting having been held in Ankara on 11-15 September 2000 following the conclusion of the non-disclosure agreement designed to protect intellectual properties concerning the exchange of information among the delegated companies, and instructs the Management Committee to resolve the remaining issues mentioned in the last report of the Study Group and to report to it.

7. Invites the member countries to direct their respective organisations to continue to closely collaborate with the Turkish Authorities (TAI) and to consider all the necessary steps, including speedily making their decisions known on the quantity they may wish to order this aircraft so that its commercial evaluation and production could be started at an early date, while at the same time working on the multi-purpose version.

TRADE

8. Reiterates its appreciation to the IDB for its offer to contribute to meeting the cost of the feasibility study of the IMTC project and thanks as well the Bank for agreeing to remove the two terms earlier attached to this offer.

9. Also reiterates its appreciation to those member states that have agreed to contribute to the cost of the feasibility study.

10. Welcomes the steps taken by Egypt in pursuance of Decision 23 (VII) that led to the reconsideration by the IDB of the terms attached to its offer and invites Egypt to complete as soon as possible all the necessary steps for the start of the work on the feasibility study including the announcement of the tender conditions for the offers by the nominated consultant firms, selection of the firm with the lowest bid etc., and authorizes her to sign the contract with this selected consultant firm.

11. Reaffirms its request from the member countries to encourage their private sector through their chambers of commerce to participate in the project.

12. Reiterates its call upon the governments to encourage their national chambers of commerce & industry and business associations to sign as soon as possible the Charter of the D-8 Forum for Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Business Associations for its early entry into force. Efforts should be made to introduce the IMTC project among the D-8 business community on the occasion of the forthcoming meeting of the OIC Chambers of Commerce & Business Associations which will take place in Doha 15-17 October 2000, as decided by the Commission at its VII. Session.

13. Appreciates the work by the I.R. of Iran for the new version of the Agreement on Easing Visa Procedures for Businessmen circulated at the Commission meeting and requests the member states to convey their views on this new text prior to the IX. Session of the Commission for facilitating a final decision.

14. Decides to consider in principle a single framework in the field of shipping to discuss ways and means of updating available information about national flag vessels, cargo movements and facilities, conditions of the main ports in the member countries as well as the development of partnerships among the entrepreneurs of member countries on joint venture basis for the expansion and sustainability of shipping trade within D-8.

15. Invites Bangladesh and Egypt as the sponsors of the earlier proposals on this
subject to jointly prepare a paper on the modalities of establishing such a framework including its structure and functioning, to be circulated to the member countries to seek their comments thereupon, and decides to consider the paper in the light of these comments.

16. Invites those member countries who have not yet done so to designate their focal points in the field of shipping.

17. Expresses its thanks to the Secretary General of the Islamic Shipowners’ Association for their valuable suggestions for cooperation with the D-8 members and requests the member countries to give their comments on them in order to take an appropriate action at its next session.

ITDB NETWORK

18. Thanks the Government of the I.R. of Iran for organising the Meeting of National Administrators on 24 April 2000 to finalise the preparations of the ITDB project.

19. Expresses as well its appreciation to the Iranian Government for accomplishing this project and launching the ITDB website on 24 May 2000.

20. Strongly urges the member countries to complete the work on their national home pages and to insert the latest data on industrial, technological, economic and commercial activities and to update them regularly; recommends as well to the member states to make efforts to publicise the website in their respective countries.

21. Invites those member countries that have not yet done so to designate their national focal points responsible for the implementation of this project.

22. Appreciates the contacts of the I.R. of Iran with the ITU for the preparation of a feasibility study on e-commerce and requests the member countries to respond as soon as possible to the questionnaire prepared for this purpose.

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

23. Welcomes the steps taken by the Indonesian Authorities to follow up Decision 60 (VII.). Invites the Member States, as requested by the coordinating country, to provide the Executive Director with an updated list of their national focal points as well as information and data on their capacities on HRD and poverty alleviation programs on the basis of the two sets of forms circulated earlier.

24. Thanks the Indonesian Authorities for the offer to organise a workshop on the empowerment of rural community through the use of appropriate technology for poverty alleviation in Jakarta on 14-18 May 2001, as outlined in the Terms of Reference circulated at the Commission Meeting.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

25. Reiterates its earlier request from Bangladesh and Egypt to prepare the revised version of the project “Promoting Rural Industrialisation by Comprehensive Approach” for its approval at the next session of the Commission, thus enabling both member countries to jointly approach UNIDO to seek technical and financial assistance for its implementation.

PERMANENT UNIT (COORDINATING CENTER)

26. Reaffirms its earlier agreement to make a yearly financial contribution to the tune of USD 100 000, excluding Turkey towards the expenses of the coordinating unit with the proviso that the rest of the cost of the unit is expected to be met by Turkey. Financial contributions of the member countries other than Turkey will be shared equally.

27. Decides to review this transitional arrangement, including the scales of assessments, before the end of the Chairmanship of Egypt, taking into account the relevant decisions.

LIAISON WITH OIC/IDB

28. Agrees on the draft resolution proposed by Bangladesh on liaison to be established between D-8 and OIC/IDB for its submission to the meeting of the OIC Foreign Ministers.

29. Requests the Executive Director to take the steps mentioned in Decision 79. (VII) following the adoption of the draft resolution referred to above by the OIC Foreign Ministers.

REPORT OF THE IX SESSION OF THE COMMISSION

(16-17 January 2001, Dhaka)

1. The IX Session of the Commission was held at Dhaka on 16-17 January 2001. All the countries attended the meeting.

2. The inaugural session was held on the morning of 16 January 2001. The Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh H.E. Mr. Shafi Sami, welcomed the guests and spoke on the occasion. The Executive Director of D-8, H.E. Ambassador Ayhan Kamel, also delivered a statement. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Abul Hasan Chowdhury, addressed the gathering. The Minister of Commerce, H.E. Mr. Md. Abdul Jalil, delivered a short speech as the Guest of Honour. The Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr. Abdus Samad Azad, addressed the Chief Guest and also formally inaugurated the Meeting. The Commissioner of Bangladesh, H.E. Dr. Toufiq Ali, thanked all those present, on behalf of D-8 Commissioners. The inaugural session was well attended by a large audience, including Heads of Diplomatic Missions, representatives of press and of the business community, and senior government officials.

3. At its session, the Commission considered and adopted the draft agenda of its Meeting, which is provided at Annex I to this report.

Item III: Report of the Executive Director

4. The Commission took note of the report of the Executive Director on the progress achieved in the implementation of the projects and programmes of the Group as well as the evaluation report of the overall activities of the Group since its inception. The Commission appreciated the Executive Director for all his assistance to advance the cause of this Group.

Item IV. Preparations of the Cairo Summit

5. The Commissioner of Egypt informed the meeting about the organisational arrangements of the Cairo Summit and distributed provisional agenda and programs of work of the Summit, the V Session of the Council of Ministers and the X Session of the Commission, which are provided at Annexes II, III, IV. She reported that Turkey and Indonesia had already intimated that they would be represented at the Summit at the level of President and Pakistan by the Chief Executive. She requested the remaining members to kindly indicate as soon as possible their level of participation. She also added that they needed the composition of the delegations together with special requests, if any. Malaysia clarified that the level of their representation has not been decided yet. Nigeria informed that their delegation had been instructed to forward a detailed report to their authorities on the Commission Meeting in order to assist the country's preparations for the Summit.

6. Concerning the Business Forum, the Commissioner of Egypt informed that the Forum would be organised on 22-23 February 2001. They selected these dates to be as close as to the Summit so that it would be linked with the Summit meeting. She also circulated the provisional agenda of the Business Forum for Chambers of Commerce and Industry & Business Associations, which is provided at Annex V to this report. The invitation to the Forum has already been made through the national chambers of commerce. The Egyptian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade are expected to address the Forum to encourage the participation of the business community. The Commissioners, having agreed on the need to make the Forum more attractive and meaningful for the businessmen, stated that the objectives and the contents of the Forum should be well defined. The possibility of interaction should be created between them, and the experiences of other Groupings such as ASEAN and APEC should be utilised. In this connection, it was also added that the national chambers should be informed about the IMTC and other trade related issues in order to involve the private sector in D-8 cooperation, establishing an active interaction between the Forum and the Commission.

7. The Commission appreciated the Commissioner of Egypt for her report on the preparation made for the Summit and considered the draft agenda proposed for the Cairo Meetings. The member countries were requested to communicate their views and comments on the drafts, if any, to the Egyptian authorities in due course. The Commission suggested that the businessmen be invited to the inaugural session of the Summit.

8. The Commission made a preliminary exchange of views on the draft Cairo Declaration presented by the Executive Director. The Commission emphasized the need for a declaration covering the current world economic situation and issues of common concerns to D-8 member countries as well as guidelines for the promotion of co-operation within the Group. The Executive Director was requested to prepare a revised version of the second part of the draft Declaration in the light of the guidelines agreed upon by the Commission and taking into account the proposals received from some member states during the meeting. The host country was requested to revise the first part of the draft Declaration, taking into account the comments already made or to be made by other members. The revised version of the draft Declaration (First and Second Parts) will be distributed to member states well ahead of the Summit. The Commission shall consider and finalize the draft Declaration at its 10th Session in Cairo.

9. The Commissioner of Egypt informed that in view of the inadequate response from the member countries to participate in the cultural event on the sidelines of the Cairo Summit and also considering the time constraints, it would not be possible to hold this event.

10. The Executive Director referring to Article 6 of the Charter of the D-8 Forum for Chambers of Commerce and Industry & Business Associations, said that the Executive Committee composed of the Presidents and the Secretary Generals of the national chambers was entrusted with the task of preparing for the Business Forum. It was decided that the committee might be convened just before the Business Forum in Cairo due to the lack of time.

Item V. Trade

a) International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC)

11. The Commissioner of Egypt informed the meeting of the progress of work on the feasibility study on the establishment of the IMTC Project and the future phases of the study. Having circulated a summary along with the text of the first draft covering the sections on project background, economic analysis and implementation plan, she said that the IMTC should not duplicate what is already existing in other organisations and should make full use of the mechanisms and resources now available such as the Islamic Chamber of Commerce (Karachi), ICDT (Islamic Center for Development of Trade -Casablanca). She added that it should be in the form of a treaty, which would include all rules and regulations, privileges.

12. The representative of UNCTAD Mr. Shaffaeddin, who was invited to attend the Meeting, offered his general comments, which are provided at Annex VI.

13. The Commissioner of Egypt stated that one of the main objectives of the D-8 group is to promote and intensify intra-trade amongst its members. To that end, it opted for a pragmatic, step-by-step approach. Explaining the structure and the work phases of the IMTC, she stressed that every member country should feel free about the way in which it contributes its share. In conclusion, the Commissioner of Egypt suggested her colleagues to provide their comments in writing in order to be taken into account by FINBI for the revision of the draft.

14. In the discussions, which took place thereafter, the following views were expressed by the member countries:

- The Company in its present shape resembles an organisation rather than a real Company. It should be aiming at profit making.

- The Company should primarily address the D-8 intra-trade. In other words, there should be a modest beginning.

- The Company should be private sector driven. However, at the initial stage, the government involvement may be necessary. This raises a conceptual problem. In view of this, either the Company could be established with the initial involvement of governments but there would be an in-built devise to gradually draw the private sector into the Company or the Company could be established by the private sector as from the beginning. Perhaps, in a flexible approach, it could also be left to each member country how to participate in the Company. In certain member countries, the private sector is quite weak. Therefore, the initial government involvement may be required in these countries.

- Deciding on the possibility of concluding a treaty or any other kind of agreement for the establishment of the company largely depends on the comments, which will be provided by the member states after the consideration of the feasibility study.

- Meanwhile, the Malaysian Commissioner explained in detail their experience on this matter. Japanese experience shows that their trading companies were developed over many years. Malaysian experience is also valuable and should be taken into account for designing IMTC. Therefore the project could be developed starting from a modest scheme with specific objectives.

15. The members expressed the need to thoroughly examine the concept of the draft feasibility study. It was suggested that the Trade Expert Group Meeting and the Business Forum be given an opportunity to examine the draft feasibility study and provide their views. Every effort should be made to reach a broad agreement on the concept and objectives of such a company for a recommendation to the Summit. The feasibility study should then be revised on the basis of such agreement.

b. Trade related issues

ii. Easing Visa Procedures for Businessmen

16. The Commission took note of the second revised text of the draft agreement on easing visa procedures for businessmen. It was agreed that the text would be recommended to the Fifth Meeting of the Council of Ministers for approval so that it could be signed on the occasion of the Summit, if no additional comments are raised by the members by that time.

iii. Shipping

17. The Commissioner of Bangladesh presented their proposal to establish a Shipping Business Forum and added that they would organise a Working Group meeting on Shipping in Dhaka, which was welcomed by the Commission. Thereafter the following views were expressed:

- The purpose of this meeting should be to establish a dialogue between the business circles, shipping companies and Ship-owners' associations under the umbrella of shipping forum.

- As regards cooperation in the field of shipping, it is important to know what the government may offer for cooperation to the shipping companies such as providing port facilities, reducing the fees and easing government regulations, etc.

- The Business Forum, which will take place in Cairo, may provide a suitable occasion to establish this dialogue. To this end, the Islamic Ship-owners' Association may also be invited to the Business Forum. However, the discussions in the Business Forum should be of general nature to hear the problems of each side. Thereafter, these problems could later be taken up in detail in the meeting of Shipping Forum, which will be organised by the Government of Bangladesh.

iv. Simplification and harmonisation of banking measures

18. The Commissioner of Bangladesh reporting their consultation with the Central Bank of Bangladesh stated that the annual IMF meetings offer the best occasion to have a meeting of D-8 central bank officials as all the members attend the IMF meetings with the officials of their central banks and ministries of finance. Following short discussions, it was agreed to hold the first meeting on the sidelines of the annual IMF meetings. It was recommended that the Chair Country may convene the meeting.

v. Trade facilitation/customs procedures

19. The Commission reiterated its request from the member countries to take the necessary steps to respond to its earlier decisions.

vi. Agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and promotion/protection of investments.

20. The Commission took note of the updated chart of the status of these agreements. The Executive Director drew attention to the discrepancies between the replies of some member countries as provided at Annex VII to this report. It was mentioned that UNCTAD provides facilities for the negotiation of such agreements.

vii. Trade database

21. The member countries, who have not yet done so, were requested to provide Egypt with the necessary information to complete the trade database of the Group.

viii. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

22. The Commissioner of Turkey presented a wide-ranging program for cooperation in this field, developed by his authorities in the light of responses which had been offered by the member countries to the questionnaire earlier circulated. Egypt has also circulated a paper on SMEs on Joint D-8 Venture Initiative for SMEs with the D-8 member countries (The text is provided at Annex VIII).

23. The Commissioners welcomed the proposal of Turkey to convene a workshop to discuss problems in this field.

Item VI. Agricultural Aircraft

24. The Commissioner of Turkey briefed the Commission about the latest stage of the project and then the TAI representative also gave detailed information on the progress so far achieved as well as the problems presently encountered. In this connection, he underlined that it was extremely important to know the requirements of the member countries for this aircraft, in precise terms, their likely orders and the current and future status of their markets in order to further proceed on this project. He also requested the member countries to contribute to the financing of the future work on this project.

25. Some Commissioners while congratulating TAI for its successful endeavour stated that the unit price of manufacturing was on the high side, and the design and specifications of the aircraft do not meet their respective needs.

26. It was also said that the project should be based on the concept of division of labour, some parts being manufactured by different member countries. In this vein, it was suggested that a meeting could be organised to look in these problems.

27. In response, the Turkish Delegation stated that the principles of division of labour were agreed upon long ago in the meetings of the Study Group and that Turkey was accordingly ready to share the work. It was added that in order to decide on the work sharing and serial production, it was necessary to know beforehand the aircraft orders of the member countries, the whole market potential and decision to share future costs. The Study Group at its VII. Session took an important step to establish a Management Committee with the participation of the representatives of the delegated companies to discuss the problems mentioned above. However, only two member countries took part in the first meeting of this Committee. Moreover, a demonstration for the inaugural flight of the aircraft, which was planned to earlier take place for the D-8 Ministers of Industry and Commerce, was cancelled due to the lack of interest.

28. Finally, the Commissioner of Turkey referring to his letter of 15 December 2000, requested his colleagues to respond to various questions raised therein so that the Commission would be able to take a decision on the future of the project.

Item VII. ITDB Network

29. Bangladesh briefed the Commission about the database, which they posted in the ITDB Website in Internet.

30. The Commissioner of Iran expressed its appreciation to the member countries for entering information in their national home pages although the current level is not satisfactory. He therefore appealed for more information and for its update. He also added that the inclusion of trade database into the website will give a boost to the project. Furthermore, he stated that AFRANET Company (the Private company running the website) added another page for Cairo Summit, which will help advertise the event.

31. Then he informed that the server that is used by an American Company for the website is shared with 250 other websites. Therefore, he added that it would certainly be better to have a dedicated server. In this case, the cost should be shared among the member countries, which would be minimal. He also briefed on their consultations with ITU to establish a Cyber Mall. It will be a virtual eight-story building, one story to be allocated to each member. He concluded that it was important to bring this matter to the attention of the business circles.

32. In the discussions, the following views were expressed:

- Several member countries have already cyber malls in their trading houses operating through Internet. Therefore, it is advisable to link into the existing cyber malls in the member states before we commit financial and technical resources for this purpose.

- Secondly, for such a scheme, we have to find sufficient number of clients to utilise the cyber mall. In this connection and in view of the participation of companies, any proposals for cyber mall should be commercially sound and feasible.

- There were also suggestions to add addresses of the reputed website which could be hyperlinked through the Internet.

- Concerning the server, the attention was drawn to the existing servers in the member countries. They could be utilised instead of those of non-members, these being even cheaper.

- The Iranian Commissioner explained that the website has two parts. The D-8 web page can not be commercialised. The countries may enter their information or hyperlink their site in the page. For the cybermall, after the completion of the questionnaire, the next stage will be explained to the member states by the coordinating member. Finally, it was emphasized that the member countries should be committed to the D-8 page that reflects the collective spirit of D-8 cooperation. It was concluded that there was no contradiction between the two approaches, as one will not exclude the other.

Item VIII. Agriculture

33. The Commissioner of Pakistan informed that his authorities are planning to organize meetings on the following three subjects:

· Workshop on bio-technology initiative for increasing agricultural productivity

· Workshop on alternate/organic fertilizer

· Seminar on conservation of farm animal genetic resource.

34. The Commissioner of the I.R of Iran, briefing the Commission on the findings of the Workshop on Food Security with Special Emphasis on Food Safety, held in Tehran, drew the attention to the extensive use of pesticides and chemicals in agriculture to increase productivity, and added that this has created concerns in FAO circles due to the health reasons. He also referred to the follow-up committee recommended by the Workshop. He invited the member countries to respond to the recommendations of the Workshop, adding that so far only Turkey has offered its comments.

35. The Commissioner of Bangladesh informed that their authorities were interested in the training course, planned to be organized by Turkey but later postponed, on the Residue Monitoring Systems and Hygiene Rules & Quality Control Procedures. He requested that this idea should therefore be revived.

Item IX. Human Resources Development and Poverty Alleviation

36. The Indonesian representative informed that the Workshop on the Empowerment or Rural Community through the Use of Appropriate Technology for Poverty Alleviation was postponed due to the hectic program of conferences (G-15 Summit) coinciding with that period, and added that the new dates would be communicated in due course. Furthermore she appealed to those member states who have not yet done so to respond to their questionnaire so that the Indonesian focal point could proceed developing program of activities in this field.

Item X. Finance-Banking-Privatization

37. A high level Egyptian Expert on insurance made a presentation on the cooperation among D-8 for the development of insurance and Takaful business in the wake of globalisation. (The text is provided at Annex IX). In his expose, he especially drew the attention to the outflow of insurance funds (premiums) to the developed world. He also underlined the importance of establishing coordination among the member countries in connection with the rules of insurance supervision and control.

38. The Commissioners appreciating this comprehensive presentation made the following comments:

- There was a general consensus that the member countries should start cooperation in this field, which is an important supporting factor for the development of trade. They stated that the members should help each other to use, as far as possible, the existing insurance capacities in the member countries for the benefit of the D-8 area. The importance of cooperation amongst supervisory and regulatory bodies was underlined in this context. Reference was made to the optimisation of the activities of the insurance companies. In this connection, competitiveness is certainly an element to be taken into account.

- It was also suggested that the member countries should cooperate to establish their own system of rating using the existing rating institutions.

- This subject should be brought up to the attention of the Business Forum since it was a matter of primary concern for the private sector.

- In response to an inquiry whether a permanent committee could be established for cooperation between D-8 supervisory and regulatory authorities, it was suggested that Malaysia as the coordinating country might also invite the representatives of the supervisory bodies for a meeting to discuss these issues elaborated in the presented paper.

39. The Commissioner of Malaysia reported that they were planning to organise a technical training program on privatisation in August or September next.

40. The Commissioner of Iran reported on the holding of the training course on Islamic Banking for the relevant D-8 experts in October 2000 and offered to organize a similar event in the year 2001.

Item XI. Energy

41. The representative of Indonesia reminded of the decision of the VII. Session of the Commission whereby the member countries, who have not done so, were requested to report on the implementation of the recommendations of the training programs on Solar Energy Systems for Isolated Villages and Micro-Power Plants.

Item XII. Rural Development

42. The Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Division of Bangladesh made a presentation on the poverty alleviation in South Asia, with special emphasis on social mobilisation.

43. The Commissioners deeply appreciated this presentation as all the member countries faced challenges in rural development. It was stated that though government support was certainly necessary for rural development programmes, people’s participation and involvement were the most important. In this connection, a question was also raised on how to combine rural activities with small-scale industrialisation. The Bangladesh authorities were requested to consider organizing a workshop of D-8 countries to share their experience and develop specific programs for cooperation

Item XIII. Environment

44. The Commissioner of Egypt submitted for the consideration of the Commission a proposal for Co-operation in the Utilisation of Agricultural Solid Waste for Energy Generation. The text is provided at Annex X. Moreover, the Commissioner of the I.R. of Iran informed the Commission that his authorities were planning to organise a working group meeting on the technical aspects of environmental cooperation. It was suggested that the proposals put forward by Egypt be discussed in this working group

Item XIV. Liaison with the OIC

45. The Commission welcomed the resolution adopted at the OIC Summit held at Doha, for the establishment of liaison between the OIC and D-8, and the contact between the Executive Director and the Secretary General of the OIC to work out the modalities for cooperation.

Item XV. Coordinating Unit

46. The arrangements agreed upon in the earlier sessions to contribute to the financing of the coordinating unit were brought to the attention of the Nigerian Delegation, as they were not present on those occasions. The Nigerian representative stated that he would report the subject to his authorities. The Chairman reminded the need for timely payment of the national contributions towards covering the expenses of the coordinating unit.

* * *

47. The Commissioners heartily congratulated the Chairman for conducting the work of the Commission in the most diligent and excellent manner during the tenure of Bangladesh. They expressed as well their profound thanks and appreciation to the Government and People of Bangladesh for their hospitality and generosity.

REPORT OF THE TENTH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION
TO THE FIFTH SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

(Cairo, 22-23 February 2001)

1. The Tenth Session of the Commission was held in Cairo, Egypt on 22-23 February 2001. All the member countries attended the meeting which was convened to prepare Third D-8 Summit.

2. At the beginning of the meeting, H.E. Ambassador Dr. Toufiq Ali, the Commissioner of Bangladesh, handed over the Chairmanship to H.E. Ambassador Dr. Magda Shahin, the Commissioner of Egypt. In his statement, Ambassador Toufiq Ali shared his experience during their Chairmanship with his colleagues and made a short evaluation of D-8 cooperation. The Commissioners paid tribute to him for his stewardship as the Chairman of the Commission during the past two years.

3. In her opening statement, H.E. Ambassador Dr. Magda Shahin, the Chairperson of the Commission, highlighted the significant progress so far achieved in D-8 cooperation although only four years passed since the creation of the Grouping. She said that the D-8 Grouping had a unique character by focusing on specific projects which were economically feasible and workable. She added that the Grouping should maintain this practical and action-oriented approach in its future work. Ambassador Shahin while reviewing the activities of the Grouping underlined the importance of the expansion of D-8 intra-trade and referred in this context to the IMTC project and other trade related issues.

4. The Commission considered the draft provisional agenda and adopted it with the amendments as will be seen in the attachment.

5. In his brief statement, the Executive Director while referring to few activities during the period of about one month since the Ninth Session, drew particular attention to the decision taken by the Nigerian Authorities to convene the First Meeting of the Working Group on Energy in early April. He said that this was a welcome step as a renewed commitment by this country to D-8 cooperation. He added that there were two major items in the agenda, namely the consideration of the report of the Fourth Expert Group on Trade and the Draft Cairo Declaration which require particular attention by the Commission.

Agenda Item 4. Presentation by the Chairman of IV. Expert Group Meeting on Trade on the work of the Group and consideration of its Report

6. The Commission first heard the statement of the Chairman of the Fourth Expert Group Meeting on Trade on its work. Thereafter, the Chairman of the Business Forum which was convened simultaneously with the Commission meeting reported the discussions which took place in the Forum on the IMTC project and other trade related issues. The texts are attached herewith.

7. The Commissioners, having deeply appreciated the work done by the Expert Group on Trade as well as the Business Forum, held extensive discussions on the IMTC project in the light of the conclusions of the two reports mentioned above. There emerged a broad agreement that the feasibility of the project should be explored in the following lines:

· The Company should be private sector driven.

· It should be in the form of joint stock company operating in export free zone.

· It is preferable that each country should have equal share to reflect benefits, responsibilities and representation. Unfilled subscriptions by a member should be covered by the rest, if need be, to maintain the principle of equal share.

· The company should have three functions namely, trade promotion including the dissemination of trade information, marketing and trade support, direct and indirect trade.

· These activities should proceed in a timely and phased manner. At the initial stage, it should engage in trade promotion.

8. It is important that the governments should encourage the private sector to take the necessary steps for the establishment of the company and to utilize its services when established.

9. The Commissioners agreed that FINBI should prepare a revised version of the feasibility study in the light of the comments made at the IV. Expert Group Meeting, including revised financial implications for the initial stage at which only trade promotion activity will be conducted.

10. It was also suggested that in the meantime, the services of the Egyptian Trade Information Center could also be utilized by D-8 businessmen, as in the case of Malaysian companies having already established links with this center.

11. The Commission also considered various trade related issues such as the setting up of a Shipping Business Forum, elimination of customs barriers, extension of credit lines, establishing direct banking links between D-8 countries and simplification of banking procedures etc.., in all of which the private sector is expecting action from the D-8 governments as detailed in the report of the Business Forum. The Commissioners having reviewed the issues mentioned above decided to continue its work on them.

Agenda Item 5. Human Resources Development and Poverty Alleviation

12. The Egyptian expert made a presentation on behalf of the Managing Director of Social Fund for Development (SFD) on possible areas of cooperation among the D-8 countries in the field of poverty alleviation (the text is attached herewith). She made the following four concrete proposals:

· Best practices in poverty alleviation on the D-8 web-page, designed to share the successful experiences of the member countries in alleviating poverty, by focusing on mechanisms and processes that are conducive to combating poverty and marginalisation.

· Micro-finance initiative for D-8 countries, which is aimed at exchanging experience among micro-finance experts in order to examine the obstacles to micro-finance and the means to strengthen micro-finance infrastructure.

· Assistance among D-8 countries for development and utilization of information and communication technologies for poverty alleviation to promote effective strategies to this end.

· Publication on trends on human development and poverty alleviation in the member countries in order to provide policy makers with relevant, timely and accurate information as well as to strengthen the link between the data producers and data consumers, the researchers and the policy makers.

13. The Commissioners having deeply appreciated the presentation made by the Egyptian expert from SFD, emphasized that poverty alleviation should be one of the priority objectives in D-8 cooperation. Thereafter they have had extensive discussions on the subject and made the following points:

· Several member countries already have successful poverty alleviation programs which could be of benefit to others. Moreover, under the D-8 cooperation, some workshops and seminars were in the past organized by the members. Future cooperation should be built on what has already been achieved.

· The four proposals made by Egypt should be taken up in a future meeting. In this connection, it was suggested that the workshop which would be organized in July by Indonesia on the empowerment of rural community through the use of appropriate technology for poverty alleviation would provide a suitable opportunity to discuss them. The Indonesian Commissioner stated that this workshop might be prolonged for an additional day to this end.

· Without an effective mechanism which could promote collective action and approach, it is not easy to seek financial assistance from international organizations in this field.

· Indonesia as a coordinating country on Human Resources Development and Poverty Alleviation presented and circulated a progess report on D-8 cooperation in this field and kindly requested those member countries that have not yet done to respond to the questionnaires circulated for this purpose.

· Concerning the utilization of the existing web-site, the attention was drawn to the UNESCO’s MOST web-site.

· Pointing to the different criteria in defining poverty such as the “least calorie” or “average cost of living”, the need was stressed to develop a common understanding (standardization) in the definition of this concept.

Agenda Item 6: Telecommunication and Information & Science and Technology

14. The Commissioner of Iran stated that the ITDB web-site was gradually expanding and the number of visitors to the web-site was increasing. Taking into account the wish expressed by the members at the Ninth Session of the Commission for the use of the servers which may be existing in the member countries instead of that of the American company which was at present being used in the ITDB web-site, he circulated a study on the cost requirement of a dedicated server for the D-8 ITDB web-site. He expressed the hope that the member countries might come up with alternative proposals including their estimated cost.

15. Referring to the cyber mall system, he stated that their authorities had more contacts with the ITU on this subject and the organization was conducting a preliminary study which would also address the cost of the system.

Agenda Item 7: Agricultural Aircraft

16. The Turkish Commissioner, referring to his letter circulated before the Ninth Session of the Commission to seek the response from the member countries to the questions raised therein, said that so far only Pakistan gave its reply. He requested the other members to kindly do the same as soon as possible so that a final decision could be taken on the future course of action in this project.

17. The Commissioner of Iran said that a valuable work has been done by TAI to manufacture the prototype. Several members have either set up their own facilities already or are in the process of setting up. However, these individual facilities in the member countries do not have sufficient market to start the commercial production. Therefore, it is necessary to combine the markets of the member countries for a single D-8 project. He proposed that a consortium or holding could be established under which interested member countries might either develop aircraft jointly by producing certain parts or they might share the investments to divide the benefits. He promised to circulate their proposal in writing.

18. The Turkish representative said that their authorities would consider this proposal carefully, adding that there still was a need to find out beforehand the potential market for such an aircraft.

19. Some Commissioners referred to certain problems related to the implementation of the project, especially its financing. In this connection, it was said that the financing from the OIC or other international institutions might be sought under the D-8 Governments’ collective guarantee.

20. On the other hand, Egypt suggested that the cooperation in the field of industry be expanded by initiating new projects besides the agricultural aircraft and proposed Turkey to consider organizing a workshop or a meeting to discuss the possibilities in this respect. The Turkish Commissioner stated that they had in the past planned to organize a meeting of the Ministers of Industry on the occasion of the inaugural flight of the prototype of the agricultural aircraft to review the progress on the agricultural aircraft as well as to discuss new industrial projects and that this meeting was however postponed due to the lack of interest at that time. He added that he could now suggest to his authorities to reconsider the convening of this meeting.

Agenda Item 8. Consideration of the draft Cairo Declaration.

21. The Commissioners considered the Draft Cairo Declaration and recommended the final text to the Council of Ministers.

Agenda Item 9. Joint Meeting with the Business Forum and Evaluation of the Outcome of the First Meeting of the Business Forum

22. The Commission welcomed the holding of the First Business Forum. The Commissioners had a joint meeting with the representatives of the Business Forum and listened to the presentation of its report. They expressed their deep appreciation of the work done by the Forum and had a useful discussion on the various proposals made in the report. Emphasizing the importance of the participation of the private sector in D-8 activities, the Commission agreed to study and further pursue the recommendations made by the Forum.

Agenda Item 10. Consideration of the Draft Agendas for the Ministerial and Summit Meetings

23. The Commission having considered the draft agendas recommended them as proposed by the host country, to the Council and the Summit.

Agenda Item 11: Any Other Business

24. The Commissioner of Malaysia informed the Commission that they would organize the Course on the Management of Privatization on 20-25 August 2001.

25. The Commissioners recommended the final text of the “Agreement on the Simplification of Visa Procedures” to be signed at the Meeting of the Council of Ministers.

26. The Delegation of Pakistan circulated their proposals to organize the workshop on “biotechnology initiative for increasing agricultural productivity”, the seminar on”alternate/organic fertilizer” and the seminar on”conservation of farm animal genetic resources”.

27. The Delegation of the I. R. of Iran also circulated their proposals to share technology in DNA typing and as well as in HIV.

Agenda Item 12. Closure of the Meeting

28. The Commissioners having adopted the Report of the Commission expressed their appreciation to the Chairperson for conducting the meeting of the Commission in an efficient and competent manner. They expressed their profound thanks to the Government of Egypt for the excellent organizational arrangement for the Summit and its hospitality.

REPORT OF THE IV. SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

(New York, 20 September 2000)

1. The IV. Session of the Council of Ministers was held in New York on 20 September 2000. The Meeting was followed with a working luncheon.

2. The Chairman of the Council, the Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, made an opening statement, summarizing the progress made in D-8 cooperation in various fields. Referring to the momentous decisions of the Millenium Summit, he stated that we should make joint efforts to meet the challenges of this new era. He also added that we should take advantages of globalization while trying to guard against its harmful consequences. Thereafter, the agenda of the meeting was adopted.

3. The Ministers stated that in view of the new challenges faced by the world due to the far-reaching political, economic and technological transformations, we as D-8 have to make joint efforts to promote the welfare, well being and the quality of life of our peoples. They expressed the view that the member countries should therefore reinforce their commitments to D-8 cooperation.

4. Reviewing the progress achieved in various fields, the Ministers stated that the pace of the progress in D-8 cooperation has not however reached the desired level. For this reason, they underlined the need to review the past performance of the Grouping and to draw lessons from it. In this vein, they also said that the member countries should better respond to the invitations for participation in various meetings. They added that this review should lead to the maximum use of the potentials of the member countries.

5. The Commissioner of Bangladesh, the Chairman of the Commission, presented his Report on the VIII. Session of the Commission. (The text is attached herewith).

6. The Executive Director responding to the valuable and inspiring comments made by the Ministers, said that though there is a progress in the implementation of several projects, there is still a lot of work to be completed especially in relation to major projects such as the IMTC, ITDB network and agricultural aircraft. He underlined that if the decisions are swiftly implemented and closely followed up, greater and quicker benefits would accrue to the members. Sharing the views of the Distinguished Ministers on the review of the past performance of D-8, he added that he would submit to the Cairo Summit a report of “the State of D-8” so that the Heads of State and Government would take necessary conclusions and give appropriate instructions.

7. In the light of the Report of the Chairman of the Commission and the discussions in the Council, the Ministers endorsed the decisions of the Commission.

8. The Ministers pronounced their sincere wish to see Nigeria attending the D-8 commission, council and summit meetings, including the forthcoming Cairo Summit.

. The Ministers expressed their appreciation to the Chairman of the Commission and the Executive Director for their efficient work.

10. The Ministers expressed their thanks to the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh for his hospitality and for his able Chairmanship as well as their appreciation for the hospitality of his Government.

REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS TO THE THIRD SUMMIT

1. The Fifth Session of the Council of Ministers took place on 24 February 2001 in Cairo.

2. At the Inaugural Session, H.E. the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the current Chairman, having inaugurated the Fifth Session of the Council made an evaluation of the activities of the D-8 Grouping during the Chairmanship of his country. He underlined that the D-8 has made a steady and considerable progress since its inception. The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh then handed over the Chairmanship to H.E. the Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

3. The Egyptian Foreign Minister referring to the fact that the existing international system is currently passing through fundamental changes bringing with it additional challenges to the D-8, stressed that these challenges require doubling our efforts to ensure effective participation in shaping the new global architecture for more equitable sharing of benefits and proportionate distribution of burdens between the different parties. He pointed out that the D-8 Group was established on a practical philosophy that attempts to further the common interests of its member states through an action-oriented approach. The D-8 constitutes a pioneering example in this respect. So far, we have taken several steps in various fields. We have also planned to take additional steps which have to be translated into concrete action. A balance should be stricken between action and ideas.

4. H. E. the President of the Islamic Development Bank and the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference also addressed the Inaugural Session. The Chairman of the Egyptian General Federation of Commerce presented the recommendations of the First Meeting of the D-8 Forum for Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Business Associations in his address to the Council of Ministers.

5. At the Working Session of the Council, the Draft Provisional Agenda was approved. The D-8 Executive Director in his brief statement evaluated the D-8 activities since the creation of the Grouping and emphasized the importance of closely following up the implementation of the projects and decisions.

6. The Chairman of the Commission gave an account of the discussions which took place at the Tenth Session of the Commission and of the conclusions reached. In addition, the Chairman highlighted the joint meeting held between the Commissioners and the businessmen participating in the First Forum of the D-8 Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Business Associations. She commended the open and free discussion that took place between them as well as the appreciation expressed by the Commissioners for the dedication and interest that marked the First D-8 Business Forum meeting.

7. The Honourable Foreign Ministers and Heads of Delegations appreciated the work of the Commission and its Chairman as well as the efforts of the Executive Director and his staff.

8. The Foreign Ministers renewed the commitment of their governments to further D-8 cooperation. In this context, H.E. the Foreign Minister of Nigeria explaining the domestic difficulties experienced by his country in recent years stated that this had created some ambivalence in the position of Nigeria vis-a-vis D-8 cooperation. He however assured that his Government, having now overcomed these difficulties to a great extent and achieved domestic stability, was ready to fully participate in D-8 cooperation. All the Ministers welcomed this development.

9. The Foreign Ministers while evaluating the activities of the Grouping elaborated on the subjects of cooperation for which their countries were acting as coordinator. In their assessment, they particularly underlined the following points.

· The participation of the private sector in D-8 cooperation is extremely important since it is the private sector which serves as the locomotive of the D-8 economies. Therefore, the creation of the Business Forum of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Business Associations constitute an important step in this direction. The Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt is to be congratulated for convening the First Meeting of the Business Forum.

· There should be an interaction between the D-8 Governments and the private sectors. The Governments should create suitable legal environment for the private sector. In this context, the conclusion of Agreements on “Avoidance of Double Taxation” as well as the “Promotion/ Protection of Investments”, harmonization of banking procedures, opening credit lines, reduction of tariffs and removal of trade barriers etc were mentioned. H. E. the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran proposed that the Expert Group Meeting on Trade should study the reduction of tariffs and removal of tariff barriers in a regional framework, taking into account the WTO commitments. He suggested that this subject should be reflected in the Cairo Declaration.

· Trade represents a major area of cooperation with large potentials. The setting up of the IMTC will be instrumental to this end. The IMTC should be private sector driven. It is earnestly hoped that the company would soon become operational after the examination of the revised version of the feasibility study to be prepared in the light of the views expressed in the Expert Group on Trade and the Commission. The governments should encourage the participation of the private sector in this important project.

· Development of information and communication technologies between the member countries and their access to important ICT centers are crucial to further D-8 cooperation. The ITDB network offers an important instrument to this end. The governments should consider providing incentives for the creation of multi-media super corridors and connecting their existing infrastructure in this context.

· The D-8 countries like many developing countries are facing serious problem of poverty which is one of the priority areas in D-8 cooperation. Therefore, there is a need to develop poverty alleviation programmes. For this purpose, new strategies have to be formulated and cooperation be intensified between the member countries.

· Capacity building must be incorporated in all D-8 projects. This has human, institutional and legal dimensions.

· The agricultural aircraft project represents an important subject of D-8 cooperation in the field of industry. Therefore, the possibility of serial production of the aircraft should be considered taking into account its commercial feasibility, based upon the quantitative requirements of the member countries and their likely contribution to the financing of the project.

· Since D-8 economies are not comparable to those of the industrialized world, the development of small and medium sized enterprises should have an important place in D-8 cooperation. Collaboration and exchange of experience in this field should be encouraged between the member countries.

· Environment is another subject which requires attention of the Grouping. The members should continue the cooperation already started in this field.

10. The Council recommended the Draft Cairo Declaration to the Third Summit for its approval with a minor amendment .

11. The Foreign Ministers and the Heads of the Delegations congratulated the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the excellent arrangements for the Cairo Summit and expressed their profound thanks for its warm hospitality.

12. At the conclusion of the meeting, the “Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedures for the Businessmen of the D-8 Member States” was signed by the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Turkey.

CAIRO DECLARATION

1. We, the leaders of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Republic of Turkey met in Cairo, Egypt on the 25th of February 2001 for the Third Summit of the Developing Eight Countries (D-8). We reviewed global economic developments and the state of our cooperation. We reaffirmed our determination to achieve the goals and objectives of the Istanbul Declaration.

2. The Cairo Summit takes place against the backdrop of improving economic conditions among the members of the Group, who still however have to face significant economic challenges.

3. We have been active in advocating dialogue amongst civilisations and believe that year 2001 as declared by the United Nations General Assembly to be the Year of Dialogue among Civilisations holds the hope for greater and deeper understanding and the strengthened sense of unity and solidarity amongst the states and peoples of the world community.

4. We express our concern at the negative impact on the developing countries of the slowdown in the major economies. This further aggravated the prevailing imbalances in the world economy to the detriment of our efforts to overcome the challenges we face. We therefore call upon the developed economies to spare no efforts in supporting global growth. They must refrain from protectionist tendencies in order to minimise the adverse repercussions of the slowdown on developing countries.

5. Globalisation is a reality that should be turned into a positive process, which respects the basic principles of equity and social justice for developing countries including the members of the D-8 Group. It is a matter of concern that the benefits of globalisation are at present unevenly distributed while its costs unevenly shared. We have to ensure collectively that its benefits are fairly and equitably distributed and its costs be shared in accordance with common and differentiated responsibilities of states in a global partnership.

6. Furthermore, it is vital to enhance regional coooperation amongst developing countries through the sharing of resources and expertise in order to face the challenges of globalisation. Also, in that vein, we believe that cooperation among regional organisations, and between them and international bodies is important.

7. A number of consecutive financial crises and their wide spread contagion emphasise the need to strengthen cooperation to improve the international financial system in a democratic and a transparent way, thereby ensuring the greater participation of developing countries. The current reforms of the international financial institutions should assure the effective management of the crises once they occur, and provide early warning with the aim of preventing their occurrence in order to make it more responsive to the needs and concerns of developing countries. The system should help in the mobilisation of more stable source of investment towards a larger number of developing countries, and to tame the volatility of short-term capital flows.

8. We welcome the holding of “The High Level Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development” during 2002 which is an opportunity to address related national, international and systemic issues, including mobilisation of financial resources, debt relief, and trade benefits for developing countries. The Event should also reflect enhanced cooperation between the UN and the relevant institutions, with the participation of developing and developed countries, in a true spirit of partnership, differentiated responsibilities, and mutual benefits.

9. Upholding an open, equitable, and rule-based Multilateral Trading System is a matter of crucial importance for both developing and developed countries alike. The Fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting offers an opportunity to rectify the current imbalances in the Multilateral Trading System. Developed countries are called upon to fully and faithfully implement the Uruguay Round Agreements without resorting to disguised forms of protectionism and to fully operationalise Special and Differential Treatment provisions. Moreover, an improved integration of all developing countries, including least-developed countries, into the Multilateral Trading System is essential to the efficiency of the system. In this context, we emphasise the principle of universal membership of the WTO. We also call for accelerating the accession process of developing countries to the WTO, and urge WTO members to refrain from overburdening the acceding countries with excessive demands including non-economic considerations.

10. We firmly believe that developmental issues should permeate any future agenda for multilateral trade negotiations. Together, we should strive to ensure that future initiatives in the WTO should fully take into account the interest of developing countries, including improved access to technology.

11. We recognise the enormous opportunities provided by the revolution in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development, and its role in the process of integration in the 21st Century’s Global Economy. It is also important to stress that developing countries have exerted considerable efforts to bridge the digital divide and make use of the tools of ICT in their development programmes. We call upon developed countries to support those efforts. We further emphasise the important role of the private sector and the global research centers in enhancing and facilitating the flow of financial resources and technical know-how, including R&D to developing countries in various domains of ICT.

12. We stress the urgent need for continued efforts aiming at reducing the growing economic and social disparities between the rich and the poor both within and among states. We reaffirm that Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains a critical element in the process of development for the majority of developing countries, and that the continuous decline in the levels of ODA is therefore a matter of serious concern. In this context, we call upon developed countries to reverse the current declining trend in the levels of ODA. We further call upon the industrialised countries to progressively increase their ODA levels to comply with the UN target of 0.7 % of GDP and to ensure an amount of not less than 0.2 % directed towards LDCs.

13. We recognise that the success of the economic development programmes in developing countries, in particular LDCs depends largely on a supportive external environment that offers enhanced access for their products to foreign markets and increased foreign capital flows, both in ODA and in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Within the WTO, special measures are required to help these countries to benefit from multilateral arrangements. Developing countries, especially LDCs and the heavily indebted countries need effective relief from the crushing debt burden. Measures need to be taken to ensure that these countries in particular are not marginalised in the digital age.

14. We continue to be concerned with the problem of external debt as a major obstacle to development. We are alarmed at the rate at which the debt-servicing burden has exceeded the debt itself, and that debt repayment has become much more burdensome to low and middle-income developing countries and LDCs. We call on our development partners to take additional measures to reduce the debt burden without negatively affecting other concessional commitments including ODA.

15. We recognise that FDI has emerged as one of the driving forces in world economy, as a source of increased productivity, transfer of technology, innovative organisational and management practices and integration in the world economy. We stress the fact that in spite of the improved policies formulated by developing countries to attract more FDI inflows; FDI is still concentrated in a few countries. Thus, there is an urgent need to create an enabling international environment conducive to developing countries’ efforts, which ensures that their national investment policy instruments yield better results in this respect.

16. The LDCs deserve particular attention. In this context, we express full support to the LDCs at the Third UN LDC Conference to be held in Brussels in May 2001.

* * *

17. Having reviewed the progress achieved in the implementation of the D-8 projects and programmes since the Dhaka Summit, we express our satisfaction with the successful completion of a number of projects and programmes, on the basis of feasibility and flexibility.

18. We met to exchange views on the future of the D-8 Group with the view to intensifying its work and the interaction of its members in various international organisations as well as cooperation among themselves. The Council of Ministers and the Commission should undertake appropriate follow-up action for the benefit of the entire Group.

19. We underline once again the importance of intra-trade among the D-8 members and express our deep appreciation for the efforts exerted in this regard with a view to doubling the present rate of the D-8 intra-trade within five years.

20. In this context, we appreciate the efforts of the Government of Egypt to set up the International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC) and take note of the work being done on the feasibility study. We express our deepest thanks to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for its financial contribution in this regard. We request the coordinating country to continue its collaboration with the other D-8 members for the establishment of the Company at an early date with the active participation of the private sector.

21. Furthermore, we welcome the endeavours by the respective countries in a number of programmes in the following trade-related areas:

i) The signing of the Agreement on the Simplification of Visa Procedures for Businessmen of the D-8 countries.

ii) The proposal of establishing a framework for constructive

dialogue between the business circles, shipping companies and ship-

owners associations.

iii) The establishment of a committee composed of the officials from

central banks/ministries of finance or relevant authorities, which will

be entrusted with the task of simplification and harmonisation of banking measures.

iv) The finalisation of the work on the trade database, inviting the members to feed the site regularly with trade information for the common interest of the entire membership.

22. In this context, we instruct the Commission to intensify its work in the area of trade facilitation/customs procedures within the D-8 area and urge member states to respond expeditiously to the Commission in this regard. We also instruct the Commission to study trade preferences and the issue of trade barriers within the D-8 as a regional arrangement, consistent with the international obligations of the member states.

23. We appreciate the efforts of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for manufacturing the prototype of the agricultural aircraft as well as for conducting the tests successfully. We instruct the Commission on the basis of the principles of work sharing to look into the possibility of serial production of the aircraft taking into account its commercial feasibility, the quantitative requirements of the member countries and their likely contribution to the financing of the project.

24. We appreciate the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the successful

launching, on the Internet, of the web site of the Industrial and Technological Data Bank Network (ITDB) and invite the member countries to regularly feed the necessary information in their national home pages. We also instruct the Commission to consider two new proposals presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran to extend this project on e-commerce and to establish a dedicated server.

25. We express our appreciation to the member countries for having organised since the First Summit more than 30 meetings, workshops, seminars, training programs etc. with a view to exchanging knowledge, experience and expertise in different fields of common interest. While calling upon the governments of member states to follow-up the implementation of the recommendations of the above-mentioned meetings, invite them to organise further meetings in these vital areas, as well as to explore the possibility of convening ministerial meetings - as appropriate – to give impetus and promote further D-8 cooperation.

26. In this context, we welcome the initiative of member countries to hold the following meetings during 2001/2002.

i) The Working Group Meeting on Energy by Nigeria.

ii) The training program by Malaysia on privatisation.

iii) The training course on the residue monitoring systems and hygiene rules & quality control procedures for fish packaging proposed by Turkey.

iv) Three workshops on bio-technology initiative for increasing agricultural productivity; alternate/organic fertilizer; and conservation of farm animal genetic resource, to be organised by Pakistan.

v) The workshop by Indonesia on the empowerment of rural community through the use of appropriate technology for poverty alleviation.

vi) The workshop in the field of rural development to be held by Bangladesh.

vii) The working group meeting on the technical aspects of environment to be hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

viii) The workshop on SMEs to be hosted by Turkey.

27. We also welcome various new cooperation schemes proposed and discussed in the Commission and the Council of the Ministers. We ask the relevant bodies of the group to study them and proceed with implementation programmes expeditiously. The schemes include, amongst others, the following:

i) Proposal to share technology in DNA typing presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

ii) Proposal regarding technology offer in HIV presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

iii) Proposal for creating an environment network that could tap existing information and provide a basis for the application of environmentally sound technologies found in developed countries, presented by Bangladesh.

iv) Proposal to cooperate and coordinate between the insurance and re-insurance companies presented by Egypt and Malaysia’s proposal to invite the representatives of the supervisory and regulatory authorities in the field of insurance to work out the modalities of establishing a mechanism of cooperation among them.

v) Proposal in the field of poverty alleviation presented by Egypt which includes: -Designing a “Best Practices Inventory” web page on the D-8 web site.            -Exchanging of expertise among D-8 micro-finance experts.                           -Assistance among D-8 countries for the development and utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) for poverty alleviation.                                     -Issuing a publication on trends in human development and poverty alleviation mechanisms and programmes in the D-8 member countries.

vi) Proposal regarding “Promoting Rural Industrialisation by a Comprehensive Approach” presented by Egypt.

vii) Proposal initiating the programme of action for effective cooperation on SMEs proposed by Turkey, and the proposal on the creation of joint venture schemes for SMEs presented by Egypt.

viii) Proposal for cooperation in the utilisation of agricultural solid waste in energy generation presented by Egypt.

28. We call upon the governments to monitor the implementation of the above-mentioned meetings, projects and the respective programmes, so that a progress report will be presented through the relevant bodies of the D-8 to the next Summit.

29. Recognising the pivotal role of the private sector in achieving the objectives of D-8 cooperation in all fields, including trade, investment and industrial cooperation, we note with appreciation the entering into force of the Charter of the Business Forum of the D-8 Chambers of Commerce and Industry & Business Associations according to which the Forum came into existence, and invite the members which have not yet sign the Charter, to do so at the earliest. In this context, we appreciate the initiative taken by Egypt to convene, in parallel to the Third Summit, the First Meeting of the D-8 Business Forum. We also appreciate the work undertaken by the Forum under the chairmanship of the Egyptian Federation of Chambers of Commerce. We took note of the recommendations of the Forum, as reflected in its final report. And, in the light of our resolve to promote intra-trade and closer interaction between the business community of the member states, we request the Commission to further study and pursue the recommendations of the Forum.

30. Instruct the Commission to consider establishing institutional relationship with other international/regional organisations, especially IDB, UN, UNDP, FAO, UNIDO and WTO.

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.

32. We endorse the arrangements made to contribute to the financing of the budget of the Coordinating Unit and decide to review these transitional arrangements including the scale of contributions before the end of the chairmanship of Egypt, taking into account the relevant decisions.

33. We express our profound appreciation to the Honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Her Government for providing able and effective leadership during the period of the chairmanship of Bangladesh, when the D-8 took a more concrete shape and grew in strength and important meetings both at official and expert levels were held successfully.

34. We congratulate the Honourable President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and His Government for assuming the chairmanship of D-8 for the next two years and assure of our fullest support and cooperation in further consolidating the D-8 Group and its development activities and extend our appreciation to the people and Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the success of the Third D-8 Summit.

35. We welcome with appreciation the generous offer of the Government of Indonesia to host the Fourth D-8 Summit in the year 2003 in Jakarta.

DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
VI. DEVELOPMENTS SINCE THE THIRD SUMMIT (CAIRO)
AND DECLARATION OF THE FOURTH SUMMIT (TEHRAN)

 

Summary of the Past Activities

The Fourth Summit while reviewing the activities during the last three years, has at the same time offered an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the D-8 Group since its creation and to take the necessary measures with a view to enhancing its effectiveness.

Eighteen projects in terms of workshops, seminars, expert group meetings at the technical level in various sectors have been implemented during the last three years. The list of the activities is attached herewith. (Annex I)

The Commission, at which the member countries are represented by the Deputy Foreign Ministers/ Undersecretaries, held five meetings:

• XI. Session on 6-7 June 2002 in Cairo
• XII. Session on 11-12 August 2003, Cairo
• XIII. Session on 27 September 2003, New York
• Special Session on 10-11 January 2004, Tehran
• XIV. Session on 12 January 2004, Tehran
• XV. Session on 15 February 2004, Tehran

The first three were regular meetings of the Commission to consider the decisions and reports of the technical meetings mentioned above and thus to review the progress achieved in various fields. The last two meetings were rather designed to prepare the Tehran Summit, whereas the Special Session was primarily aimed at evaluating the performance of the Group since the First Summit as will be detailed downbelow. The decisions of the XI. and XII. Sessions and the reports of the XIII, XIV/Special and XVSessions are in the attachment. (Annexes from II to VI.)

The Council of Foreign Ministers met twice during this period on 28 September 2003 in New York and 16 February 2004 in Tehran just before the Summit. Their reports are also in the attachment. (Annexes VII and VIII)

Evaluation of the Past Progress

At its XII. Session, the Commission felt the need to engage in a major review and evaluation of the activities of the Group since its creation with a view to revitalize, and to give an impetus and vigour to, the D-8 cooperation. To this end, it was decided to convene a special session of the Commission. Indeed, having met in Tehran on 10-11 January 2004, the

Commission undertook a brainstorming exercise. In the end, the Commission reached the following conclusions:

* Timely organization and thorough preparation of the meetings and programs in various sectors,

* Announcement of the calender of events on annual basis after screening various project proposals on the basis of their merits and priorities,

* Recognizing the high priority of trade and investment in D-8 cooperation in view of the great potential existing for the expansion of the intra-trade, which still constitutes less than 4 % of the total foreign trade of D-8 countries with the whole world (USD 500 billion) although D-8 intra-trade increased nearly 50 % from USD 14.5 billion in 1999 to USD 21.3 billion in 2002;

• negotiations of preferential tariff and customs cooperation agreements for the elimination and reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers,
• harmonization of economic and trade regulations of the members in order to create a conducive environment for cooperation and to facilitate interaction among them,
• convening a meeting of high level trade officials to this end.

* Initiating an interaction between the government and the private sector, and inviting the representatives of private sector to the meetings of the Commission to this end.

* Creation of conducive environment for the private sector by offering various incentives, including credit facilities in order to enhance its participation in D-8 cooperation.

* Holding ministerial meetings in various sectors as required in order to give impetus to D-8 cooperation.

* Strengthening exchange of information by regularly feeding and updating the Industrial and Technological Databank Network (ITDB) in Tehran and various databases established thereunder in the fields of trade, agriculture, poverty alleviation rural development, energy.

* Promotion of public awareness of D-8 and its activities in the member countries, i.a. commemoration of D-8 day every year on 15 June in each capital, and establishment of relationship between universities, scientific institutions, non-governmental organizations as well as cultural activities, sports events, scholarships etc..

* Engaging consultations among the members in order to harmonize their positions in multilateral trading discussions as well as in other international conferences as appropriate.

*Establishing working relationship including dialogue partnership with other international organizations with priority of UN agencies (the formal relationship with UNIDO having already been established)

* Strenghtening the structure of D-8 secretariat.

Summit

The Fourth D-8 Summit was held in Tehran on 18 February 2004 and was preceded by:

• Second Business Forum on 14 February 2004
• High Level Trade Officials Meeting on 14-15 February 2004
• XV. Session of the Commission on 15 February 2004
• VII. Session of the Council of Ministers on 16 February 2004

The Second Business Forum was attended by the representatives of the D-8 private sectors. Emphasizing the importance of trade in D-8 cooperation, the participants in the Business Forum supported the measures recommended to this end by the Commission at its Special Session in January last, and decided as well to organize trade fairs every year, starting with the I.R. of Iran in 2004. On the other hand, they underlined the cooperation in the fields of tourism and health sectors. The Business Forum also stressed the need for greater interaction between the government and private sector in order to enhance D-8 cooperation. In its review of the report of the Business Forum at its XV. Session, the Commission recognized this need and agreed to meet with the representatives of private sector at each session. The report of the Second Business Forum is in the attachment. (Annex IX.)

The Council of Foreign Ministers considered the reports of the Special Session as well as XIV. and XV. regular sessions of the Commission and endorsed them. The Council also considered the draft Tehran Declaration and submitted it to the Summit for its approval.

In their policy statements at the inaugural session, the Heads of State and Government reviewed and evaluated the activities of the Group since the Cairo Summit and considered as well the recommendations of the Commission to revitalize D-8 cooperation and to enhance its effectiveness, as endorsed by the Council of Foreign Ministers. In this vein, they particularly emphasized the importance of the promotion of D-8 intra-trade, the participation of the private sector in D-8 cooperation and the establishment of interaction between the government and the private sector.

At the working session, the Heads of State and Government considered the text of the Tehran Declaration and finally approved it as proposed by the Council. The text is in the attachment. (Annex X). As will be seen, the first part of the Declaration addresses international economic issues while the rest gives directives for the future course of action in D-8 cooperation. As such, it endorses several recommendations of the Special Session of the Commission, including those in the field of trade. In this vein, the Declaration also instructs the Commission to consider initiation of new projects in industrial sector with a realistic and pragmatic approach while appreciating the manufacture of the prototype of the agricultural aircraft by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and taking note that its serial production may be started when the market potential expands enough to make this project commercially feasible as well as financial requirements are met.

On the other hand, the Heads of State and Governemnt also endorsed the following activities planned for the year 2004. Thus, they also endorsed the following activities planned for the year 2004.

 

NAME OF THE MEETING	COUNTRY	DATE
Meeting on Shipping to Establish a Shipping Business Forum	Bangladesh	No date set during the last three years
Second Working Group Meeting on Energy	I.R. of Iran	Postponed, no new date set
Workshop on Data Collection, Classification systems and Management of SMEs	Pakistan	No date set
Seminar on WTO issues	Pakistan	No date set
Seminar on Water Conservation and Drip Irrigation	Pakistan	March 2004
Second Meeting of Officials of Central Banks/ Ministries of Finance	I.R. of Iran	No date set
Meeting of Senior Officials with private sector participation to consider new industrial projects	I.R. of Iran	No date set
Workshop on Insurance Supervision	Egypt	1-2 March 2004
Meeting of Supervisory and Regulatory Authorities of D-8 on Insurance and Takaful	Malaysia	15 July 2004
Second Meeting of D-8 High Level Expert Group on Trade and Trade Related Matters	Pakistan	First half of September 2004

 

 

ANNEX I

D-8 LIST OF TECHNICAL MEETINGS SINCE THE THIRD (CAIRO) SUMMIT

 

Expert Group Meeting on Energy	3-5 April 2001 Abuja
Workshop on Alternate/Organic Fertilizer/Integrated Plant Nutrition System	19-20 June 2001 Islamabad
Managing Privatization Course	20-25 August 2001 Kuala Lumpur
Workshop on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises	2-4 October 2001 Istanbul
Workshop on the Empowerment of Rural Community through the Use of Appropriate Technology for Poverty Alleviation	5-9 November 2001 Jakarta
Working Group Meeting on Technical Aspects of Environmental Cooperation	14-15 November 2001 Tehran
Workshop on Sharing Experience and Formulation of Future Strategy for Rural Development	5-7 March 2002 Dhaka
Seminar on the Development of Residue Monitoring Systems & Hygiene Rules and Quality Control Procedures	26-28 March 2002 Bodrum/Turkey
Expert Group Meeting on Trade Preferences, Customs Procedures and  Trade Barriers	21-23 May 2002 Kuala Lumpur
Seminar on Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources	1-3 August 2002 Islamabad
Training Course Designed to Look into Insurance Supervision and Regulating for Solvency and Insolvency	23-24 September 2002 25-26 September 2002 Kuala Lumpur
Convention on the Emergence of Takaful in the Wake of Globalisation	1-2 November 2002 Kuala Lumpur
Expert Group Meeting on Environment and the Seminar on Agricultural Solid Waste Management	15-16 December and 17 December 2002  Cairo
Second Expert Group Meeting on Trade Preferences, Custom Procedures and Elimination of Trade Barriers	11-13 January 2003 Tehran
Meeting of Officials of D-8 Central Banks/Ministries of Finance to Discuss Trade Related Banking Measures	29 January 2003 Cairo
Third Expert Group Meeting on Trade Preferences, Custom Procedures and Trade Barriers	6-7 October 2003 Istanbul
Workshop on Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources	11-13 January 2004 Cairo
High Level Trade Officials Meeting	14-15 February 2004 Tehran

 

ANNEX II

DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE XI SESSION OF THE COMMISSION
6-7 JUNE 2002, CAIRO

The Commission, having met in Cairo on 6-7 June 2002, adopted the following decisions and recommendations:

TRADE

1.Appreciates the work done by the consultant firm – FINBI- in preparing the final version of the feasibility study on the establishment of the International Marketing and Trading Company (IMTC) in the light of comments offered by the member countries after the Cairo Summit.

2. Decides to convene a meeting for the prospective partners or potential shareholders to be hosted by the Egyptian Federation of the Chambers of Commerce, early September 2002, to consider the terms and modalities of the establishment of the IMTC. The Egyptian government will later announce the exact date of the meeting.

3. The next Commission will consider the recommendations of the said meeting prior to submitting the final report to the next Council of ministers for adoption, with the ultimate objective of launching the IMTC in the Fourth summit of Heads of State and Government.

4. Reaffirms the already agreed principle that the company would become private sector driven based on the objectives of the D-8.

5. Invites the member governments to encourage through their national chambers and business associations, the firms and businessmen operating in their country to participate in the said company and to subscribe to its capital.

6. Calls upon the D-8 Business Forum and its executive committee to also stimulate the interest of D-8 firms and businessmen in the activities of the IMTC and to encourage them to join the company.

7. Also invites the member governments to subscribe to the capital of the company, be it in a modest amount in accordance with the principles of public-private partnership, to give a clear signal to the private sector that they strongly support this project.

8. Reaffirms the importance the Commission attaches to the establishment of a shipping framework for a constructive dialogue among the business circles, shipping companies, ship owners associations, and invites the government of Bangladesh to set a date to convene the working group meeting on shipping to consider this matter.

9. Invites the member governments to feed and update the trade database regularly with trade information, including trade exhibitions, for the common interest of the entire membership, as requested at the Cairo Summit, and recommends to incorporate the trade data base, which will be administered by Egypt, into the ITDB website; and requests the Executive Director to follow up the implementation of this decision.

10. Invites Egypt as the coordinating country, to convene the first meeting of the officials of D-8 Central Banks/Ministries of Finance to discuss trade-related banking measures amongst the member countries. It is recommended that advantage could be taken of the presence of the Central bank governors of the member countries in Washington, D.C. to attend the World Bank/IMF meetings to convene the above mentioned meeting.

11. Appreciates the efforts of the government of Malaysia in convening the first expert group meeting on Trade Preferences, Customs Procedures and Trade Barriers from 21-23 May 2002. Encourages the expert group to follow up on the recommendations contained in the report, in the upcoming meeting to be held in the I.R. Iran.

12. Invites the members who have not yet done so, to sign and accelerate their procedures of the ratification of the Agreement on the Simplification of Visa Procedures for D-8 Businessmen so that the Agreement would enter into force as soon as possible.

13. Endorses the report of the Workshop on SMEs jointly organized by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (SMIDO) of Turkey in Istanbul on 2-4 October 2001.

14. Welcomes the offer of SMEDA of Pakistan to set up a forum on the internet under its website to achieve continuous exchange of information among the members in this field. The Commission endorses the proposal to organize a workshop on data collection, classification system and management of SMEs and ideas such as convening an expert group meeting on Joint D-8 Venture Programs and setting up subcontracting exchange offices through the assistance of UNIDO.

15. Invites Indonesia, as the next Chair, to consider convening a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Business Forum before the second meeting of the Business Forum to take place alongside the Fourth D-8 Summit to be held in Jakarta 2003.

INDUSTRY

16. Appreciates the work done and the financial support given by the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to manufacture the prototype of the agricultural aircraft and to successfully conduct its test flights. The Commission invites the member countries to respond, by the next session of the Commission, to the letter of the Commissioner of Turkey circulated on 15 December 2000, and to the Iranian proposal made at the Tenth Session of the Commission to establish a consortium for initiating commercial production of the aircraft so that a definitive decision could be taken on the future of this project in the light of the directive given by the Heads of State and Government at the Cairo Summit, thus avoiding unnecessarily prolonging existing uncertainties on this matter

17. Recognizes the importance of expanding cooperation in various fields of industry and urges member countries to propose new projects to meet this objective.

TELECOMMUNICATION & INFORMATION AND SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

18. Appreciates the work done and the financial support given by I.R. Iran to establish and administer the ITDB network, and reiterates its earlier call to the member countries to regularly feed and update their national home pages in this network.

19. Requests the coordinating country – I.R. Iran – to pursue the finalization of the feasibility study done by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for setting up a cyber mall for e-commerce, including the need for a dedicated server, in the light of the comments by the member countries on the pre-feasibility study. The Commission also, requests I.R. Iran, in cooperation with, the ITU to provide a demo (Pilot Project) of the cyber mall, once the feasibility study is completed.

AGRICULTURE

20. Endorses the recommendations of the report of the Workshop on Organic/Alternate Fertilizer, which was held in Islamabad on 19-20 June 2001.

21. Welcomes the convening of the workshop on Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources on 1-3 August 2002 in Pakistan, and the workshop on Biotechnology Initiative for Increasing Agricultural Productivity, to be organized by Pakistan before the end of this year.

22. Appreciates the Training Program on Residue Monitoring Systems and Hygiene Rules & Quality Control Procedures for Fish Packaging, organized by the Government of Turkey in Bodrum on 26-29 March 2002; and recommends the member countries to exchange information and experience in aquaculture technology and infrastructure, and to encourage as well private sector companies to collaborate in the breeding and trade of sea products.

FINANCE-BANKING-PRIVATIZATION

23. Appreciates the efforts by the Government of Malaysia in convening the Training Program on Privatization on 20-25 August 2001, which has been very informative for the participants. The Commission welcomes the offer of Malaysia to convene another Training Program on Privatization to be held in 2003.

24. Appreciates the efforts by Malaysia in promoting takaful, retakaful (insurance and reinsurance) and Islamic Banking initiatives among member countries. The Commission welcomes the training programs and activities on takaful and retakaful to be organized by Malaysia for the period 2002 - 2004.

25. Invites Malaysia to organize a meeting of competent authorities, as suggested by I.R. Iran, to discuss takaful and retakaful, and the Egyptian proposal entitled “Cooperation among the D-8 for the Development of Insurance and Takaful Business in the Wake of Globalization”, as well as the Malaysian proposal on the modalities of establishing a mechanism of cooperation in the field of insurance.
 

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT – POVERTY ALLEVIATION

26. Endorses the report of the Workshop on the Empowerment of Rural Community through the Use of Appropriate Technology for Poverty Alleviation, which was organized by the Government of Indonesia on 5-9 November 2001.

27. Recommends the member countries to continue to work together to find ways and means in order to develop appropriate technologies, and to this end to exchange experiences and best practices, including in micro-financing, among them through the D-8 web-site.

28. Recommends the members to utilize community-based technologies that are simple and low cost; to ensure participation of rural community in the planning, designing and implementation of schemes to alleviate poverty; to encourage the involvement of the private sector in the development of appropriate technology and in efforts to empower rural community; to increase cooperation among the D-8 member countries in information and communication technologies related to poverty alleviation and to this end closer collaboration among the coordinators.

29. Recommends the member countries to continue exchange of experiences in Human Resources Development and Poverty Alleviation by conducting 2 workshops as follows:
• Proposal by I.R. Iran to hold a workshop on “Poverty Alleviation: Reforms and Development Measures” to be held in the fall of 2002.
• Proposal by Indonesia to hold a workshop in 2003 on Food Safety for poverty alleviation.
The Commission invites the member states to provide relevant information in the D-8 website.

30. Welcomes the proposal by I.R. Iran to convene a meeting of the officials responsible for poverty alleviation programs, to initiate cooperation among member countries in this end.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

31. Invites members to engage actively in a constructive dialogue through the D-8 website to promote with a view to promoting common perspectives on rural industrialization. Further invites Bangladesh as the coordinating country and Egypt as the author of the project “Promoting Rural Industrialization by Comprehensive Approach”, in cooperation with interested members to initiate the implementation of this project. To this end, the Commission also requests the Executive Director to approach UNIDO and other relevant international agencies and donors for assistance.

32. Appreciates the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh for convening the Workshop on “Sharing Experience and Formulation of Future Strategy for Rural Development” on 5-7 March 2002 and endorses the recommendations made.

33. Appreciates the briefing of the Turkish Commissioner on the pilot project called “ Villages Turned Towns” and welcomes the Turkish proposal to organize a seminar and a study tour to share the experience on this project.

ENERGY

34. Appreciates the efforts by the Nigerian government in convening the Working Group Meeting on Energy, which was held on 3-5 April 2001 and endorses the recommendations made.

35. Invites the interested member countries to take the necessary steps with the view of initiating the projects identified in the report.

36. Stresses the importance of information exchange in the field of energy and strongly recommends that a program for the exchange of information on the members’ expertise in the field of energy to be established with a view to enhancing capacity-building and feeding the D-8 website with this information. Also takes note of the recommendations for the establishment of an International Energy Institute for Manpower Development, and to give their views thereupon till the next session of the Commission so that it may examine them, and accordingly report to the Council of Ministers

ENVIRONMENT:

37. Appreciates the efforts by the I.R Iran in organizing the Working Group Meeting on Technical Aspects of Environmental Cooperation which was organized by the government of the I.R. Iran on 14-15 November 2001 and endorses the report of the said meeting.

38.Invites the members to make appropriate proposals and to take the necessary steps for the implementation of various recommendations formulated by the experts, such as organizing workshops on identification of existing environmentally sound technologies in member countries and developing mechanisms for their transfer upon the request of interested member countries; designing funding and implementing joint projects on various environmental issues faced by the member countries; establishing an environmental network through the ITDB web-site and developing and monitoring system to determine and manage the environment pollution under the coordination of I.R. Iran’s Department of Environment.

39. Welcomes the proposal by Egypt to organize the next Expert Group Meeting on Environment on 15-16 December 2002 as well as the Seminar on “Agricultural Solid Waste Management” on 17 December 2002.

QUESTION OF LIAISON WITH THE OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

40. Authorizes the Executive Director, in line with paragraph 3 and 9 of the Istanbul Declaration and paragraph 30 of the Cairo Declaration to pursue and initiate liaison, consistent with the priority interests of the Group, with the relevant international and regional organizations such as, the IDB, UN, UNDP, FAO, UNIDO, WTO and OIC, bearing in mind that this constitutes the first step to include more organizations as required. Also requests the executive director to report about his contacts to the next session of the Commission.

STATUS OF THE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND THE BUDGET PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2001

41. Takes note of the status of financial contributions by the members and the budget performance submitted by the Coordinating Unit for the year 2001.

42. Calls upon the member governments to make their payments for the year 2002, together with the unfulfilled contributions for the last year, towards the expenses of the Coordinating Unit under the existing arrangements agreed upon.

DATES AND VENUE OF THE NEXT SESSIONS OF THE COUNCIL AND THE COMMISSION

43. Recommends that the VI. Session of the Council be held in New York alongside the 57th session of the UNGA, and accordingly would hold the next session of the Commission also in New York to precede the Council meeting, the dates of both of which to be fixed by the Chair Country in consultation with the member states.
 

 

ANNEX III

12 August 2003

DECISIONS OF THE XII SESSION OF THE COMMISSION
(11-12 AUGUST 2003, CAIRO)

The Commission having met in Cairo on 11-12 August 2003, adopted the following decisions and recommendations:

TRADE

1. Underlining the importance of launching the IMTC project as soon as possible, calls upon member states to do their utmost to impress upon their national chambers of commerce and business associations to stimulate a genuine interest among their business community for subscribing to this project, as a necessary step for the enhancement of intra-trade activities among the D8 member states.

2. Welcomes the offer of the Egyptian Federation of Chambers of Commerce for the promotion of the IMTC on the margin of the Tenth Meeting of the private sectors of the Islamic states to be held in Tehran, 4-5 October 2003.

3. Requests member states who have not yet done so, as a matter of urgency, to communicate in writing by the end of September 2003, their final decision on their financial contributions for the IMTC, and to encourage their respective private sector to participate in the IMTC project.

4. Welcomes the offer of Egypt to hold a meeting in Cairo in December 2003 with the view of reaching a final decision on the future arrangements for the IMTC.

5. Calls upon member states to urge their focal points to regularly feed and update the trade database with trade information, including trade exhibitions, and to provide hyperlinks facilities to their export promotion authorities.

6. Emphasizing the importance of shipping services for the expansion of D-8 intra-trade welcomes the intention of Bangladesh to convene the Working Group Meeting for the Establishment of a Shipping Framework for a constructive dialogue among business circles, shipping companies and shipowners’ associations in Dhaka, at their earliest convenience.

7. Appreciates the convening by Egypt of the first Meeting of Officials of Central Banks/Ministries of Finance in Cairo on 29 January 2003. While endorsing the recommendations made by the experts, encourages D-8 Central Banks to exchange banking-financial-economic information by publishing it in their website as well as by utilizing ITDB website (trade database).

8. Also encourages 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 organize training programs and seminars on a regular basis.

9. Recommends D-8 Central Banks and other relevant institutions to ensure compliance of the banks with the internationally recognized prudential rules and adherence by them to the international standards and practices in banking operations.

10. Welcomes the proposal of I.R. of Iran to host the Second Meeting of Officials of Central Banks/Ministries of Finance in Tehran.

11. Appreciates the convening by the I. R. of Iran of the Second Expert Group Meeting on Trade Preferences- Custom Procedures- Elimination of Trade Barriers on 11- 13 January 2003 in Tehran, and takes note of the two proposals made by the I.R. of Iran, the first related to the conclusion of a multilateral agreement on administrative assistance on customs matter, and the second concerning the conclusion of a preferential tariff agreement.

12. Welcomes the initiative taken by Turkey to convene the Third Expert Group Meeting in October 2003 to continue to consider Trade Preferences - Custom Procedures- Elimination of Trade Barriers, and invites member states to give their written comments on the draft texts of the agreements mentioned above in advance of the Third Expert Group Meeting.

13. Calls upon those member states, that have not yet done so, to expedite their domestic procedures for the ratification of the Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedures for D-8 Businessmen so that the agreement will enter into force as soon as possible, and stressed that expediting visas for businessmen is crucial for promoting inter D-8 trade.

14. Welcomes the intention of Pakistan to organize a workshop on data collection, classification systems and management of SMEs, and urges member states to confirm their participation in this workshop
15. Encourages member states to exchange information in the field of SMEs by utilizing both by SMEDA’s website of Pakistan, and SMIDEC’s of Malaysia.
16. Welcomes the offer of Pakistan to hold a seminar on WTO issues in Islamabad.

INDUSTRY

17. While appreciating the manufacture of the prototype of the agricultural aircraft and its successful testing flights by the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), decides to delay under the present circumstances its serial production till such time when the market potential expands enough to make the project commercially feasible as well as the financial requirements are met.

18. Takes note of the offer made by the I. R. of Iran to convene a senior officials meeting to consider various proposals of industrial cooperation prospects, including civil aviation industry.

TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

19. Reiterates its call to member states to regularly feed and update their national home pages in the ITDB website and periodically inform the host country every six months after they complete the process.

20. Welcomes the initiative of the I.R. of Iran to conduct a feasibility study for setting up an e-commerce cyber mall in cooperation with the ITU.

21. Welcomes the proposal of Pakistan to provide - through the internet - articles/news items published in international and Pakistani Periodicals/Journals, of relevance to the D-8 Trade and Economic Activities.

AGRICULTURE

22. Appreciates the Workshop convened by Pakistan on the Conservation of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) on 1-3 August 2002 in Islamabad, and while endorsing the recommendations of the Working Group, invites member states to take initiative to implement them, including the establishment of a working group on a functioning network of stakeholders of farm ANGR.

23. Welcomes the proposal of Egypt to host a second workshop on the conservation of farm animal genetic resources before the end of 2003, subject to financial and technical support from the FAO.

24. Invites Pakistan, as the coordinator of the agricultural sector, to set up a virtual experts network, for exchange of information in this field and to follow up the recommendations of the Workshop on Food Security with Special Emphasis on Food Safety (Tehran 16-20 October 2000), for which the I.R. of Iran will act as a focal point in coordination with Pakistan.

25. Welcomes the offer by Pakistan to host a seminar on water conservation and drip irrigation.

FINANCE BANKING AND PRIVATIZATION

26. Appreciates the convening by Malaysia of the Convention on the Emergence of Takaful in the Wake of Globalisation in Kuala Lumpur on 1-2 November 2002 as well as organizing two Training Courses on Insurance Supervision and Regulating Solvency and Insolvency on 23-26 September 2002. Further welcomes the Malaysian offer to organize another training program on privatization on 8-13 December 2003.
27. Welcomes the offer of Malaysia to organize a meeting in 2004 of supervisory and regulatory authorities of insurance and Takaful, to work out the modalities of establishing a mechanism of cooperation in this field.
28. Also welcomes the offer of Egypt to host a workshop in Cairo during the first half of 2004, in order to extend cooperation in the field of conventional insurance and reinsurance in addition to the concept of Takaful.
29. Takes note of Malaysia’s invitation to the governments and private sector of the D-8 members to take up equity participation in the capital of ASEAN RETAKAFUL LABUAN Limited, and to inform their competent authorities.

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

30. Encourages member states to develop appropriate technologies for poverty alleviation and share them with the other member states, and recommends member states to insert information on their poverty alleviation experience and best practices in the ITDB.

31. Invites member states to confirm their participation in the Workshop on “Poverty Alleviation: Reforms and Development Measures” to be held by the I.R. of Iran.

32. Takes note of the intention of Indonesia to convene a workshop on food safety for poverty alleviation in Jakarta.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

33. Decides to delay in the light of the response received from UNIDO, the implementation of the Project Promoting Rural Industrialization by Comprehensive Approach until such time when the necessary funds would be available.

34. Decides to establish a data base on rural development which will be administered by Bangladesh under the ITDB, for exchange of ideas and best practices in the field of rural industrialization.

35. Requests the Government of Turkey to consider the rescheduling of the Seminar on Comprehensive Community Development.

ENERGY

36. Recommends that a D-8 website be established under the ITDB which will be administered by Nigeria for exchange of information on the members’ expertise in the form of a catalogue of experts and institutions specialized in various forms of energy.
37. Welcomes the offer of the I.R. of Iran to host the Second Working Group Meeting on Energy in winter 2004.

38. Reiterates its call to the member states to give their views on the establishment of an international energy institute for manpower development as recommended by the Working Group on Energy, before its second meeting.

ENVIRONMENT

39. Appreciates the convening by Egypt of the Expert Group Meeting on Environment and the Seminar on Agricultural Solid Waste Management.
40. Endorses the recommendations of the above Expert Group Meeting, and urges member states to respond to the questionnaire prepared by Egypt on the potential cooperation among D-8 states in agricultural solid waste management in order to facilitate the finalization of the pilot project proposal to be funded by the IDP, UNDP and/or FAO.

41. Invites member states to organize training courses and the seminars in the field of environment as recommended by the Expert Group.

42. Takes note of the proposal by the Working Group on Environment for Malaysia to organize its next session.

43. Encourages member states to coordinate their positions on international conventions and instruments in the field of environment and to promote joint projects in collaboration with the relevant international organizations.

LIAISON WITH OTHER REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

44. Appreciates the steps taken by the Executive Director to establish liaison with UNIDO and welcomes the Joint Communique signed between the two bodies to this effect.

45. Invites member states to come forward with new ideas of cooperation in the fields enumarated in the Joint Communique in order to develop joint projects in collaboration with UNIDO, which would then be submitted to the next Summit for approval.

46. Requests the Executive Director to continue his efforts to establish liaison with FAO and other international organizations in the UN family.

47. Welcomes the initiative of the ECO Secretary General to establish liaison between D-8 and ECO and accordingly instructs the Executive Director to take the necessary steps for this purpose.

48. Taking into account the initiative of the SAARC Human Resources Delopment Center in Islamabad, requests the Executive Director to start cooperation with this Center in fields of mutual interest.

49. Underlines the importance of establishing a liaison with the OIC.

REVIEW OF D-8 COOPERATION

51. While appreciating the work done by the Executive Director and his staff and the competence of the Coordinating Unit, expresses the need to assess D-8 activities in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Group.

52. Decides to hold a two-day Special Session of the Commission for this purpose, and appreciates the offer of the I. R. of Iran to host it soon after the holy month of Ramadan..
 

53. Urges member states to submit, well before the Special Session of the Commission, their views on issues related to this assessment, including the restructuring of the coordinating unit, its mandate, and the scale of contribution.

STATE OF FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE COORDINATING UNIT

54. Calls upon those member states which are in arrears in their contributions of 2001 and 2002 towards the expenses of the Coordinating Unit to make the necessary payments without further delay. Also invites those member states, that have not yet done so, to fulfill their contributions for the current year as soon as possible.

CHAIRMANSHIP AND PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT SUMMIT AND THE BUSINESS FORUM

55. Deeply appreciates the offer of the I.R. of Iran to organize the Fourth Summit, as the next Chairman of the D-8, in Tehran during the second half of February if possible or in spring of 2004..

56. While taking note of the preliminary briefing by the Iranian Delegation on the preparations of the next Summit expects to receive in due course detailed supplementary information on the Summit arrangements through the Executive Director.

57. Invites the I.R. of Iran as the next chair country to convene in collaboration with the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry the Second Business Forum alongside with the Summit as well as recommends the Iranian Chamber of Commerce to organize well in advance a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Business Forum to prepare it.

DATES AND VENUES OF THE XIII and XIV SESSION

59. Decides to convene the XIII Session of the Commission alongside the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to prepare the Council Meeting and the XIV. Session of the Commission four to five weeks before the Tehran Summit.

 

 

ANNEX IV

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

THIRTEEN SESSION OF THE COMMISSION

(New York, 27 September 2003)

1 Thirteen Session of the Commission was held in New York on 27 September 2003 with the participation of Egypt, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia and Turkey.

2. The Iranian Representative informed the meeting that the Special Session of the Commission was proposed to take place on the 10th December in Kish Island to discuss the revitalisation and enhancement of D-8 cooperation. The Commissioner of Turkey, referring to discussions taken place at the last session of the Commission stated that this meeting could be combined with the XIV. Session of the Commission designed to prepare the Summit. Responding to this idea, the Iranian Representative said that his authorities would consider to extend the duration of the combined meeting as proposed now and to advance the dates, taking into account the South-South Conference in Marakesh on 13-19 December 2003.

3. The Iranian Representative also informed the meeting that after consulting with the member countries, his authorities proposed to convene the Summit sometime in mid-February. He added that the following meetings are also to take place to proceed the Summit.

 

• XV. Session of the Commission
• Second Business Forum
• Council of Foreign Ministers

 

He also said that his authorities were considering to convene a meeting of D-8 Ministers of Economy and Trade alongside the Business Forum. It was agreed that this idea requires further consideration in the light of the decisions taken in the Dhaka Declaration on this matter.

4. The Commission discussed the provisional agenda of the Council meeting and recommended the text attached herewith.

ANNEX V

The Report (Revised) of the Special and XIV. Sessions of the Commission

(Tehran, 10-12 January 2004)

1. The Commission held its Special Session in Tehran on 10-11 January 2004.

2. At the outset, the Commissioners and the Executive Director expressed their condolences and sympathies on the tragic earthquake which recently devastated the city of Bam. They shared profound grief of the Iranian people and wished Almighty Allah to bestow its blessing on those who lost their lives.

3. The Commission undertook extensive discussions on the measures to revitalize D-8 activities and enhance the effectiveness of D-8 cooperation and adopted a series of recommendations to be submitted to the Council of Ministers. The text of the recommendations is attached herewith.(Annex I)

4. XIV. Session of the Commission was held on 12 January 2004.

5. The Executive Director briefed the Commission on the activities since the XII. Session of the Commission at which several meetings, seminars had been approved. He stated that since then only the Third Expert Group Meeting on Trade Preferences, Customs Procedures and Trade Barriers was convened while some were postponed due to the inadequate participation and no date was set for others. The Executive Director brought the outcome of the report of the Third Working Group to the attention of the Commissioners.

6. In the light of the recommendations made at the Special Session whereby the Commission emphasized the priority of trade and trade related matters within D-8 cooperation, it was agreed to convene of the meeting of high officials of the D-8 ministries of trade alongside the Tehran Summit to discuss the subjects approved at the Special Session.

7. The Commission then considered all the technical meetings which had been approved at the XII. Session, including those postponed, and in the light of the recommendations made at the Special Session decided to adopt at its next session a calendar of events for the current year on the basis of the feed back from the member states, indicating their interests as well as tentative dates for their convening by the host countries. The list of these meetings is attached herewith. (Annex II)

8. Concerning the meeting of prospective partners and potential shareholders of the IMTC which had to be postponed, the Commissioner of Egypt informed the Commission that their Chambers of Commerce could not receive any response from other D-8 Chambers in the course of consultations conducted on the margins of various meetings of D-8 private sectors, adding that she could not however take any position on this matter before consulting their relevant authorities about the fate of this project. In the discussions, it was suggested that the meeting of the Business Forum will provide yet another opportunity to ascertain the interest of the D-8 private sectors in this project.

9. In view of the importance of the shipping for the expansion of intra-trade, the urgency was stressed to organise the working group meeting on shipping which was pending for the last three years. The Commissioner of the I.R. of Iran stated that taking advantage of the Summit, they would endeavour to convene this meeting. It was also suggested that in case Bangladesh may not be in a position to do so, another member country may volunteer to organise this meeting at an early date.

10. The Commissioner of Malaysia informed the Commission of the invitation of his authorities to the D-8 governments and private sectors to join the ASEAN Retakaful International LTD. and circulated the text of this offer. In case the member countries are interested, the Company will be converted into D-8 Retakaful LTD.

11. The Iranian Commissioner briefed the Commission on the preparations for the Tehran Summit and responded to various questions raised in this respect. A briefing note is attached herewith. (Annex III)

12. The Commission considered draft text of the Tehran Declaration for submission to the Council of Ministers. Final reading of the text will be done at the XV. Session which will precede the Summit.

13. The Commission expressed their profound thanks and gratitude to the Iranian Government for its warm hospitality and excellent arrangements. They also congratulated H.E. Dr. Seyed M. Hossein Adeli for his very able chairmanship to conduct the meeting of the Commission in the most effective way.

 

Annex I

10-11 January 2004

Recommendations by the Commission at its Special Session on the revitalization of D-8 Cooperation

1. In order to demonstrate the importance we attach to the D-8 cooperation, we should consolidate our D-8 vision, based on the goals and principles embodied in the Istanbul Declaration.

2. To be more focused and enhance efficiency, we have to prioritize and set targets on selected core subjects on annual basis. Based on each year’s priorities, we have to review/evaluate the D-8 programs and define whether they are viable/non-viable, realistic/non-realistic, affordable/non-affordable; we then have to set time frame for the implementation of projects and announce calendar of events on annual basis following the discussions and approval at the first Commission meeting of each year.

3. We should ensure convening the regular meetings of Commission twice a year as required in the Document “Structure and Functioning” with a view to better follow up the program and projects and their implementation. We should also take necessary measures to ensure timely organization of the meetings and the programs in various sectors, expeditious communication between relevant departments, timely nomination of participants, satisfactory attendance at the meetings by the experts from capitals, thorough preparation by the participants for the meetings, written comments well before the meetings required.

4. In order to create a conducive environment for cooperation and to facilitate interaction among the member countries, we should attempt to connect our economies and markets by eliminating/reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers and harmonizing economic and trade policies and regulations. To this effect, priority of trade and investment i.e. elimination of trade barriers, free trade, etc. has been emphasized.

5. We are of the opinion that engaging in negotiations to conclude TPS (Trade Preferential System) or FTA (Free Trade Area) arrangements within the context of D-8 on the basis of a framework agreement would further advance the objectives of our cooperation. To this end, special meeting of trade ministers is recommended to be convened. A high level expert group meeting would also be held to prepare the meeting of trade ministers.

6. In order to enhance its participation in D-8 cooperation, we have to create conducive environment for the private sector by offering various incentives including extending credit facilities, organizing meetings and seminars amongst the chambers of commerce, granting visa facilities, etc.

7. Whereas the Commissioners are the focal points of D-8, there is a need to devise a mechanism on sectoral basis to report to the Commissioners and facilitate for them to monitor the implementation of the projects and decisions in each member country.

8. Taking into account the failure of the WTO Cancun Ministerial Meeting, which represents a major setback to the objectives of global growth and poverty reduction and macro economic imbalances in world economy, we have to engage in consultations and in efforts to harmonize our position in multilateral trading discussions as well as in other international conferences as appropriate.

9. In order to promote public awareness of D-8 and its activities in our countries, we could establish relationship between universities, scientific institutions, NGOs, etc., and organize cultural activities and sports events, offer field trips and scholarships for the students of the D-8 member countries. It is recommended that the meetings of D-8 Ambassadors to be hosted by the Commissioners be held every three months in each Capital. In New York, Permanent Representatives are also recommended to meet for consultations on subjects of common interest.

10. We decided to commemorate June 15 as the D-8 day every year in each Capital.

11. In order to give impetus to D-8 sectoral cooperation, we recommend that ministerial meetings be held as required and approved by the Commission.

12. We should strengthen the exchange of information by way of feeding and updating the ITDB and other date bases regularly.

13. We should establish working relationship including dialogue partnership with other international organisations with priority of UN agencies and those who are willing to offer their financial and technical assistance. Their experts could be invited to participate in D-8 meetings and to jointly develop concrete projects. In the case of non-member countries who are ready to offer their financial and technical assistance, the decision will be taken by the Commission on a case-by-case basis with the approval of each D-8 member.

14. The view was expressed that the existing structure of the Secretariat and its budget should be kept as it is under the present circumstances. In case the Secretariat is given additional mandate for the enhancement of the activities, then its structure, staff and the budget would be reviewed. Secondment of the Secretariat by the members with their experts might also be considered.

 

Annex II

THE LIST OF PLANNED MEETINGS

DATE	COUNTRY	NAME OF THE MEETING
Twice postponed, No new date set	Egypt	Meeting of Prospective Partners and Shareholders of IMTC in the light of the responses from the private sectors
No date set during the last three years	Bangladesh	Expert Group Meeting on Shipping to establish a Shipping Business Forum
Postponed, no new date set	I.R. of Iran	Second Working Group Meeting on Energy
Twice postponed cancelled	Malaysia	Training Program on Privatization
Postponed twice, now planned for 26-28 January 2004	I.R. of Iran	Workshop on Poverty Alleviation: Reforms and Development Measures
Once postponed, now planned for     21 January 2004	I.R. of Iran	Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Business Forum
No date set