The 31st Session of D-8 Commission meeting took place in Abuja, Nigeria, during the 12-14 March, 2011, and deliberated on various issues and matters concerning the D-8 Organization, among them consideration of D-8 Charter, Global Vision and economic cooperation issues like PTA. Participation of delegates from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Turkey attended the meeting.

H.E. Dr. Martin Uhomoibhi, the D-8 Commissioner and the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, presided as a chairman of the meeting. Dr. H.A.B. Ajayi, National President of NACCIMA (Nigeria), also made a short presentation, on the activities of the Federation.

H.E. Dr. Widi A. Pratikto, D-8 Secretary-General, made an opening statement on the activities of the Organization and the Secretariat since the last Session of the Commission. In his speech, the Secretary-General underlined the importance of the consideration of the Global Vision, D-8 Charter, the amendment of the Statutory Documents, the implementation of PTA.

On the Global Vision Agenda the Commissioners discussed in relative detail various aspects of the matter at hand, including the structure and the content of the draft under consideration. Together with finalization of the draft Charter, the finalization of draft Global Vision was recorded as among the achievement of the 31st Session.

During the implementation of PTA, another important item, Secretary-General made a brief introductory statement on the background of the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and the progress achieved thus far towards its implementation including the first meeting of the Supervisory Committee which is scheduled for 22 March 2012 (Istanbul). The subsequent exchange among the Commissioners mostly focused on the scheduled first meeting of the PTA Supervisory Committee.

The Commission also considered the Calendar of Events for the year 2012. The Commission confirmed some tentative dates for arranging meeting on different sectors like WG Petrochemical Meeting, Workshop on E-Health & Telemedicine, 2nd Working Group Meeting on SMEs, Private Sector Investment Workshop on Gene Bank Development and Management & Investment In Fertilizer Production, 3rd Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture. The Commission believe that those meetings will bring productive results for D-8 member countries and will give chances to come close each other and share their resources, expertise, and experience.

Photos related to this Session can be viewed here.