The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation together with the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) of Malaysia organized an online training workshop on Economic Diplomacy for mid-career diplomats from the D-8 Member States. The training program lasted from 8-10 December and about twenty diplomats participated in it.

In his opening remarks, the D-8 Secretary-General, His Excellency Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari addressed the impact of COVID-19 on the concept of globalization and the challenges it posed to the profession of diplomacy; the matter that requires diplomats to update their skills and capacities to meet such challenges. On his turn, Dato’ Mohamad Zamruni Khalid, the Director General of IDFR stressed the institute’s intention to organize more training workshops in the future and welcomed the participants to physically attend the workshops at IDFR premises in Kuala Lumpur.

The workshop was divided into three modules that mixed theoretical background with practical experiences. The first module was delivered by Professor Dr Sufian Jusoh, who is the Director and Professor of International Trade and Investment at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), co-founder of the ASEAN Economic Integration Forum, an External Fellow of the World Trade Institute, a Distinguished Fellow at IDFR, and it tackled economic diplomacy and highlighted the global impact of COVID-19 on international trade and economic diplomacy.

The second module was delivered by Ambassador Dato’ Muhammad Noor Yacoob, who is Adjunct Professor at IKMAS, Chairman of APEC Study Centre of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Board Member of Malaysia Productivity Corporation, and it focused on negotiations skills taking the WTO negotiations as a practical case study.

The third module was delivered by Mr. Aznir Abdul Malek, who is an ISO Lead Auditor, ICC facilitator, TQM Lead Assessor, Change Manager, and Certified Quality Manager (American Society of Quality), and it discussed leadership skills.

The participants were satisfied with the training program especially the skills- oriented modules, as they benefited from learning different aspects of the WTO negotiations, and the leadership skills which they believe they could use in their daily lives as well as their professional careers.

Speech of the D-8 Secretary-General