D-8 Secretary-General, Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, paid a courtesy visit to Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association of Turkey (MUSIAD)  and he was warmly welcomed by Mr. Nail Olpak, the President of MUSIAD, with whom he had a lengthy and productive discussion about the potentials waiting to be unrevealed among D-8 Countries on private sector. 

Dr. Mousavi highlighted that D-8 – with a combined population of over 1 billion and a market size of more than $1,5 trillion – is set to emerge as one of the world’s most promising trade blocs and had made important progress in the intra-trade section which has reached to almost 150 Billion USD in 2012.  “We are looking forward to achieving the target of $500 billion for intra-trade, which has been set by our respective governments for 2018”, added Dr. Mousavi. “It is a very challenging target but I believe with strengthening economic and trade relations among D-8 private sector, creating new and additional mechanisms and also with above mentioned agreements, we can reach this target. In this regard, private sector is the essential element in assuring the effectiveness of the work of the D-8 economic cooperation and we need a very active involvement of the private sector of D-8 Member Countries” he continued. 

Secretary-General Mousavi highlighted that with the upcoming event of the 9th D-8 Summit in 2014, in Turkey, the vital role of the Presidency will be rotated again to Turkey for the second time. He considered this to be a turning point for D-8 and hoped that it will bring a shift to the activities of the private sector as the engine of D-8 cooperation. D-8 aims to build and strengthen effective public-private partnership mechanisms through enhanced networking, entrepreneurial mentorship and information exchange between private sectors, governments and relevant multilateral organizations.  He also underlined that D-8 has completed the fundamental legal framework to facilitate economic and trade cooperation among the businessmen of D-8 countries, such as the entry into force of the Preferential Trade Agreement, Visa Agreement, and Customs Cooperation Agreement. 

 Mr. Nail Olpak, President of MUSIAD, underlined the necessity for more economic, industrial, commercial and technical cooperation among the D-8 countries. He said with the understanding of equal partnership among the members, we should establish the mechanisms that will provide utmost economical cooperation, develop our vision, and create strong partnerships. 

He also gave information about MUSIAD International Fair which is organized every two years by MUSIAD in parallel with International Business Forum (IBF). This year, MUSIAD International Trade Fair will take place at CNR Expo Center, Istanbul. This fair and forum represent great opportunities for bringing together the businessmen not only from Turkey but also from more than 92 countries all over the world, including D-8 countries. Mr.Olpak added that, such events provide opportunities to the businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs and also institutions to discuss the possibilities of cooperation with the private sector in common areas of interests, such as finding new markets for their products, financing new projects, setting up partnerships in joint ventures and applications for trade financing.

Photos of this visit can be viewed from the below link:

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/developing8/sets/72157642680736543/]