High-powered team to take part in D-8 group EC meeting

FE Team | Published: November 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
A high-powered government delegation will participate in the 24th economic commission (EC) meeting of the D-8 group in Indonesia later this month.
The meeting, scheduled to be held on November 22-23, will review progress of intra trade commerce and investment related issues that were agreed upon by the head of states of the D-8 in the fifth summit in Bali, Indonesia in May 2006, official sources said.
The D-8 (Group of 8 devel oping Muslim countries) comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
The sixth D-8 summit will be held in Malaysia in 2008.
The sources said the EC meeting will discuss status of entire gamut of economic issues.
"We will discuss new strategies, policies and measures to effectively enhance D-8 cooperation as our common efforts are aimed at overcoming basic problems of poverty to achieve sustainable growth," one source said
He said the upcoming EC meeting is important to help the head of states of the member countries reach consensus on outstanding issues in the next summit.
Sources said the meeting will discuss status of the draft Rules of Origin and other related instruments to implement the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
The process for implementation of the PTA and the Multilateral Agreement on Administrative Assistance on Custom Matters, that the head of member states of D-8 signed in Bali summit in May 2006, is also scheduled to be discussed in the EC meeting, they said.
When asked, the sources said the implementation of PTA will help Bangladesh increase exports of various products, including medicine to member countries.
Apart from this, they said, the EC will explore the possibilities of initiating fruitful projects, especially in the industrial sector.
"We believe that there is greater scope for the expansion of trade, given the fact that the D-8 overall trade reached $730 billion in 2004. We strongly believe that with the enforcement of the two agreements the D-8 intra trade will further expand in the coming years," another source said.
He further said there might be discussion on enhancement of cooperation in the field of energy to develop alternative and renewable energy resources, among others bio-fuel, biomass, hydro, solar, wind and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
"We are cognisant of the need to improve coordination and cooperation among our member states in order to enable us to participate more actively in the process of globalisation, and to support our respective national development," he said.