Pakistan is hosting the 33rd session of the D-8 Commission here from Monday in its capacity as Chair of the Developing-8 Organization for Economic Development.
An official statement said D-8 Commissioners from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey and Secretary-General Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi will attend the two-day meeting, which will review the progress in intra-D-8 cooperation in several areas.
Dr. Mousavi will meet Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who will inaugurate the session, and Syed Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.
Pakistan assumed the D-8 Chair at the last summit in Islamabad in November 2012. The Commissioners’ meet is the first in a series of meetings which Pakistan will host as a follow-up to the Islamabad Summit, the statement said. Leaders of the member-countries had adopted in Islamabad, for the first time in the D-8 history, key documents including the organisation’s Charter and its Global Vision for the next two decades, besides adopting the Islamabad Declaration 2012.
A key item on the agenda is the review of pacts on facilitation of trade among the member-countries. Pakistan has ratified all agreements, including the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), which is likely to be operationalised soon, according to the statement.
D-8 was established in 1997 and the inaugural summit in Istanbul was attended by Nawaz Sharif, then Prime Minister. The organisation reflects the interests of a combined population of one billion and a market of about $ 1 trillion.
