Preparations have been for a D-8 Commission meeting to be held in Islamabad on Tuesday, to make arrangements for the summit to kick off on Thursday.
The commission consists of an executive authority‚ and is composed of commissioners appointed by each member state for promoting compliance of D-8 directives in their respective countries. The D-8 consists of eight developing Muslim countries: Pakistan‚ Egypt‚ Iran‚ Turkey‚ Indonesia‚ Bangladesh‚ Malaysia and Nigeria. Formal invitations to these countries were delivered by Pakistan two months ago. Keeping in line with diplomatic norms, the foreign minister along with the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Malik Hammad Khan visited the capitals of D-8 member states as special envoys to extend invitations. A highly-placed official source said that a D-8 charter will be adopted at the summit along with an ‘Islamabad Declaration’. The D-8 charter would put in place an approved policy framework for the group, 15 years after its establishment in 1997 in Turkey. The two-day meeting of the commission would be followed by a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday‚ which would be chaired by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. Foreign ministers‚ senior government officials‚ governors of central banks‚ heads of trade promotion organizations‚ business leaders and exhibitors would participate in main and sideline activities. A D-8 Trade Exhibition would begin on Monday and a D-8 Business Forum would be held on Tuesday. Both events would be flagship events of the D-8 Summit, to be attended by top corporate leaders from Pakistan and other D-8 countries.
These business activities would provide a solid platform at which Pakistan’s public and private sectors would showcase wide possibilities in joint ventures and investment. The Business Forum would focus on infrastructure development‚ value-addition in textile sector and opportunities of joint ventures in alternate energy‚ engineering‚ and agro-based industries. The meeting of governors of central banks of D-8 countries will also be held on the sidelines of the summit to make recommendations for cooperation on financial and monetary issues. The meeting would also discuss the impact of global economic crisis‚ cooperation through trade and capital inflows‚ and development finance. The Islamabad summit, besides issuing a declaration would adopt the organization’s charter and its global vision. The Developing 8 (D-8) is a group of developing countries with large Muslim populations that formed an economic development alliance. It consists of Bangladesh‚ Egypt‚ Indonesia‚ Iran‚ Malaysia‚ Nigeria‚ Pakistan‚ and Turkey and was founded by Necmettin Erbakan‚ former Turkish prime minister. The group was established after an announcement in Istanbul‚ Turkey on June 15 1997.