5th D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Industry hosted by Arab Republic of Egypt on 9-11 May 2016 was graced by Mr. Sherif Ismail, Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, in the closing ceremony on 11th May. The meeting was presided over by Engr. Tarek Kabil, Minister of Trade and Industry of Egypt. 

The 5th meeting took place after around a year since last meeting in Tehran. Industry Ministers of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey, Deputy Minister of Iran and State Minister of Nigeria were, among others, attending the event. The 3-day meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Arab Republic of Egypt were attended by government and private sectors as well as international organizations. 

The Ministerial Plenary adopted Cairo Declaration whereby D-8 Ministers and Heads of Delegation reaffirmed their commitment to the cause of D-8 Cooperation and endorsed project ideas on “Promoting Cooperation between Innovation Clusters and Alliances in D-8 Member States”, SMEs capacity building, green SMEs and women empowerment and youth leadership development. It was also agreed that a new Task Force namely, Task Force on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Equipment would be established to expand cooperation. The Cairo Declaration also tasked to draft ToR for the Task Forces.

Earlier industry meetings developed policies and mechanisms with a view to utilizing existing as well as potential capacities and put together collective effort for industrial development in the Member States. The 5th Meeting revisited earlier decisions and reviewed the outcome so far achieved as well as considered restructuring the framework of mechanism, including redistributing the Working Group and Task Forces, within the broad spectrum of D-8 cooperation. Discuss of projects and/or programmes in order to implement the policies into actions is also on the high agenda.  The D-8 Ministers also discussed the vision and action plan for the Industrial cooperation among the D-8 Member States, Terms of Reference (ToR) of all Task Forces on Industrial Cooperation, implementation of programme and common projects, pragmatic approach to move in the direction of expanding industrial and technological cooperation, policies and measures towards increasing industrial and market opportunities as well as financial resources etc.   

Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, D-8 Secretary-General, said that the meeting of D-8 Industry Ministers is of pivotal importance ahead of the 9th D-8 Summit scheduled on 5th December 2016 in Iran. This meeting would provide an opportunity for the Ministers to prepare their strategy paper for consideration of D-8 leadership in December this year.  He also noted that despite the success that achieved so far, the Organization must not be complacent as there are still many more to accomplish. He added that it was important for constant review of the progress and be responsive to the need of our stakeholders. 

Federal Republic of Nigeria accepted to consider hosting 6th D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Industry in 2017.

It may be mentioned that Industry has been identified as one of five priority areas of D-8 cooperation. So far, five meetings of D-8 Industry ministers have been held in Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran (twice) and Turkey.