The Developing Eight Organization for Economic Cooperation and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development have expressed their cordial intent to facilitate close co-operation between the UNCTAD and the D-8 with the objective of promoting and accelerating trade development in the States of Common Membership.

Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, Secretary-General of D-8, met Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, the UNCTAD Secretary-General on 23 June 2015 at the UNCTAD Secretariat in Geneva. 

The two interlocutors agreed to work on development of collaborative partnership program in areas such as, trade, capacity-building, trade related technical assistance etc. and the promotion of entrepreneurship. The UNCTAD having institutional capacity for trade development will assist in capacity building within the D-8 Organization. 

The D-8 Secretary-General updated the UNCTAD Secretary-General with the latest developments taking place within the Organization and added that cooperation in D-8 priority area of industrial cooperation is taking concrete shape. He hoped that in close cooperation with the UNCTAD, the D-8 Organization would be able to accelerate its capacity in industrial development. 

The UNCTAD Secretary-General warmly welcomed the D-8 Secretary-General to the UNCTAD Secretariat in Geneva and informed him of the organization’s scope of work. Both concurred that the two Organizations had a lot of scope for joint effort in order to yield mutual benefit, sharing of information and analytical framework in particular. He appreciated the Secretary-General for the inputs and looked forward to working together in future. 

Both the interlocutors agreed to work closely to further inclusive development, build capacities of Member States, explore avenues for common projects, identify and establish value chain in order to connect from manufacturing to marketing so that benefits are maximized. 

The meeting was held in a very warm and congenial environment.