The 43rd session of the D-8 Commission was held virtually from 5 to 6 April 2021. The meeting was declared opened by H.E Ambassador ÖMER GÜCÜK, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey. After his opening remarks, he handed over the chairmanship of the Commission to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Then H.E Ambassador Masud Bin Momen, the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh delivered his statement and welcomed the Delegates to the 43rd Session of the D-8 Commission.

The Commissioners and Heads of delegation from all the D-8 Member States took part in the two-day event. The Commission discussed Dhaka Declaration 2021 and D-8 Decennial Roadmap 2020-2030 thoroughly and finalized these two outcome documents for adoption at the 19th Council of Ministers Meeting as well as the Tenth D-8 Summit that will be held on 7 and 8 April 2021 accordingly.

The Decennial Roadmap 2020-2030 has been designed to provide a vision and framework for enhancing cooperation among Member States. It will pave the way to implement concrete programme and project and the Dhaka Declaration will enhance the economic cooperation and cooperation in the areas of science and technology and promoting knowledge-based economy.

The D-8 Commissioners expressed their appreciation on the increasing trend of holding D-8 meetings and events despite COVID-19 challenges. They once again reiterated their commitment to hosting more events in the year 2021 to sustain the momentum of progress in sectoral cooperation.

As the D-8 is an economic cooperation organization and one of the core objectives of this organization is to increase the trade among the Member States, the Commission stressed on the full implementation of the D-8 PTA as well as the Multilateral Agreements on Customs matters and Simplification of the Visa Procedures that will increase business to business contacts and tourism among Member States.
A comprehensive discussion on granting observer status and permitting the accession of new members into the organization also took place. The Working Group will further work on the existing modalities and criteria and other relevant issues to make it comprehensive, so that interested countries can get a complete guideline for application for observer status or new member.

The Commission reviewed the progress of the activities of the affiliated institutions of the D-8 and appreciated the excellent work done by the institutions despite the COVID-19 Pandemic. In particular, the first virtual conference of health professional of the D-8 Member States that was organized by the D-8 Health and Social protection Programme office in Nigeria in collaboration with Chatham House. The Commission also commended the Secretary-General for his tireless efforts in the establishment of the D-8 Network of Pioneers for Research and Innovation and the D-8 Research Centre for Agriculture and Food Security. The Commissioners expressed their hope that these two new affiliated bodies will bring new dynamism in D-8 in terms of science and technology and food security and also expressed their countries’ readiness to work closely with these institutions.

The Commission also noted the latest developments on the new initiatives such as D-8 Payment card, D-8 Creative Economy and Financial Center (CEFC), D-8 Special Economic Zones D-8 Designated Airports. It also gave its suggestions and guidelines in order to turn these initiatives into concrete projects.

The Commission also approved the draft agenda of the 19th Session of the Council of Ministers and welcomed the nomination of the next Secretary-General in the person of Ambassador Isiaka Abdulkadir Imam by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.