Dr. Seyed AliMohammad Mousavi, the D-8 Secretary-General, stressed the critical need for the Municipalities of the D-8 Member States to overcome challenges facing the major cities of D-8 in his address in the 5th UCLG-MEWA Congress held on 19 April 2016 in Gaziantep, Turkey. The “Migration, Culture and Gastronomy Summit” was also held within the framework of the Congress.

In his speech, Dr. Mousavi also underlined that there are nearly 20 million refugees in the world and D-8 Countries, prevalently Turkey, are among the top countries hosting large number of migrants. “Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia are among the most welcoming countries for refugees. The province of Gaziantep is one of the Turkish cities where Syrian refugees are welcomed by the people and the officials” he added. 

Dr. Mousavi said that since D-8 municipalities have common opportunities and difficulties, it is high time for them to work together in facing their challenges as well as initiating mutual collaboration and focusing on mutually agreed areas, in particular infrastructure and good governance system in cities and others through exchange of information, knowledge, best practices and experiences.