Bangladesh hosted eighth D-8 meeting of Directors-General and Expert Working Group on Civil Aviation from 24-25 august 2014 in Dhaka. Attendance by the Heads of Civil Aviation and high-level participation from the D-8 member states made the event more successful and result-oriented. Transportation, civil aviation in particular, is one of the priority sectors identified in the D-8 Roadmap for the economic uplift of the peoples of the region. 

The aviation industry has significant inter-connected role in the thriving of the tourism industry, service sector and the growing global economy. The D-8 leaders envisaged closer and intense cooperation in this sector among the member states and agreed on the framework for engagement. 

The Meeting would discuss the current development of D-8 civil aviation cooperation, particularly the works of Task forces, states of capacity building as well as current development of Memorandum of Cooperation between D-8 and ICAO. The meeting would also assess and evaluate the updates the report of Task Forces on Air Navigation & Air Traffic Management, Commercial Issues, Safety & Security and Training & Capacity Building. Individual Task Forces on each of these issues apprised the meeting of the developments so far made. 

The next day was scheduled for presentation from Civil Aviation Administration on States Capability on training related to safety & security oversight, ANS & ATM, Airworthiness and other areas to develop data base of member states.

The D-8 civil aviation cooperation has proved to be very promising. With a population of around 1 billion, which is 15% of global population, there is abundance of technical and qualified human resources and opportunities available in this field among D-8 community. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), air passengers carried in both domestic and international sectors of air carriers reached around 250 million people in 2013 in D-8 countries, of which around 34% was contributed by Indonesia, followed by a 30% lead by Turkey.