At the invitation of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Live Stock of the Republic of Turkey, Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, the D-8 Secretary-General, attended the 1st Turkey-Africa Agriculture Ministers Meeting and Agribusiness Forum on 28 April 2017 in Antalya, Turkey. 

The D-8 Secretary-General outlined current developments taking place within the D-8 Organization and also gave a background of the D-8 and highlighted the role and engagement of the Organization as a prominent inter-governmental entity for economic development as envisaged by its leaders. He mentioned that D-8 has recorded significant progress since its establishment in areas such as industry, trade, transportation, agriculture, technology etc. and thus has contributed to the economic upliftment of the people of the Member-States. 

Dr. Mousavi highlighted some of the major achievements under the D-8 agricultural cooperation including the creation of the D-8 seed bank web site which provides a wide spectrum of database on matters related to seed production, the establishment of the D-8 Fertilizer Association and the creation of the D-8 Animal Feed Information Center (AFIC) web site. 

Furthermore, Dr. Mousavi appreciated African governments for working towards tackling the major factors that thwarts investment interests and activities and block opportunities for substantial inflow of long-term investment into Africa. These include the dearth of socio-economic and industrial infrastructure; absence of modernized, predictable and harmonized regulatory environment; as well as social instability and political volatility and other security challenges that constitute disincentive for international investors. He mentioned that Africa is a lucrative investment frontier from which optimal value can be derived and urged Turkish entrepreneurs to consider investing their resources in Africa’s agricultural sector. 

He commended the organizers for hosting  this timely event that will strengthen the current state of cooperation between Turkey and Africa and also promote trade relations between the two sides.