The Developing Eight Organization for Economic Cooperation and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization have expressed their cordial intent to facilitate close co-operation between the UNIDO and the D-8 with the objective of promoting and accelerating inclusive and sustainable industrial development, focusing its activities on poverty reduction and environmental sustainability in the States of Common Membership.

Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, Secretary-General of D-8, met Mr. LI Yong, Director-General of UNIDO, on 02 April 2015 at the UNIDO Secretariat in Vienna. The meeting was followed by release of a Joint Declaration signed by the two interlocutors to consolidate institutional partnership. 

The Joint Declaration aims at mutual collaborative partnership in areas such as, trade capacity-building, capacity-building for development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the promotion of entrepreneurship, ceramic and glass, cement, machinery, automotive, food industry, iron and steel, textile and garment and petrochemical, rural renewable energy and industrial energy efficiency, climate change and cleaner production, investments and technology promotion etc. The UNIDO having institutional capacity for inclusive and sustainable industrial development linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) will assist in capacity building within the D-8 Organization. 

The D-8 Secretary-General updated the UNIDO Director-General with latest developments taking place within the Organization and added that cooperation in D-8 priority area of industrial cooperation is taking concrete shape. He hoped that in close cooperation with the UNIDO, the D-8 Organization would be able to accelerate its capacity in industrial development. 

The UNIDO Director-General warmly welcomed the D-8 Secretary-General to the UNIDO Secretariat in Vienna and informed him of the agency’s scope of work. Both concurred that the two Organizations had a lot of scope for joint effort in order to yield mutual benefit, sharing of information and analytical framework in particular. He appreciated the Secretary-General for the inputs and looked forward to working together in future. 

Both the interlocutors agreed to work closely to further inclusive development, build capacities of Member States, explore avenues for common projects, identify and establish value chain in order to connect from manufacturing to marketing so that benefits are maximized. They also agreed to work together in the UNGA to support the process of mutual collaboration. 

The meeting was held in a very warm and congenial environment. 

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