The Seventh D-8 Working Group on Civil Aviation and Director Generals Meeting, hosted by the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, was successfully held on 3-4 June 2013 in Dhaka-Bangladesh. The Meeting was attended by delegations from 7 (seven) Member Countries of D-8, namely, 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, and the Republic of Turkey. 

The Meeting emphasized that set of practical actions and measures that serve promote the state of D-8 cooperation in actual terms was imperative, for instance to set up an action plan for future D-8 Civil Aviation cooperation for the next 5-10 years. 

In addition, each of Task Force under this Working Group reported and shared their progress of cooperation and activities. In order to make the task forces more action-oriented and outcome-based, the delegations advised the Task Forces to use ICAO technical documents, templates and regulatory frameworks as guideline for action plan. 

The meeting witnessed active exchange views on various aspects of the status of Current Development Information from D-8 Countries regarding the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between D-8 and ICAO. In this sense, member countries should consider the option of bilateral and multilateral agreements among themselves, for instance Open Skies Agreement.

The meeting also welcomed the idea to hold Ministerial Meeting in Transportation- Shipping and Civil Aviation and Tourism in order to formulate as legal framework for future cooperation. It was also noted that the meeting supported member countries for their participation at the upcoming 38th ICAO General Assembly Meeting in September 2013

At the end of the final session, Nigeria handed-over the chairmanship of D-8 WGCA to Bangladesh. Taking into this effect, Bangladesh will be the new D-8 DGCA Chairman for one year period (2013-2014) and will the host for next meeting, which is 8th DGCA in Dhaka in June 2014. Subsequently, Malaysia will be the subsequent D-8 DGCA Chairman (2014-2015) and will host the 9th DGCA in mid-2015.

Photos related to this meeting can be viewed here: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/developing8/sets/72157633921903033/]

News related to this meeting in local media can be found from the below links: