D-8 Secretary-General Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi has paid an official visit to the Antalya, Turkey between 4 to 6 November 2013. During his visit, he met with Governor of Antalya, Mr. Sebahattin Ozturk and in the meeting with the Governor he said “I am in Antalya for D-8 Fertilizer Meeting and whenever I visit a province in Member Countries, I make courtesy visits to local authorities and provide information about the D-8 cooperation” Dr. Mousavi also asserted that Turkey is going to take presidency of D-8 by the end of 2014 for a term of two years; therefore, the 9th Summit and many of the sectoral Ministerial Meetings will be held in Turkey as of 2014. 

Governor Ozturk expressed his gratitude for the visit and shared some information regarding Antalya and its tourism, agricultural and industrial potential. He also mentioned that Antalya is ready to host one of D-8 meetings in this regard. 

Dr. Mousavi also met with Mr. Çetin Osman Budak, Vice President of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB ) and the President of Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO)  and discussed the D-8 trade and business cooperation as a core area of the D-8. He mentioned to Mr. Budak that D-8 has five priority areas namely trade, agriculture, industry, transportation and energy and in these areas of cooperation ministerial level meetings are held each year.  He informed that D-8 will hold ministerial meeting on tourism in 2014.

Secretary-General Mousavi highlighted that D-8 with a combined population of around 1.0 billion and a market size of more than $1 trillion is set to emerge as one of the world’s most promising trade blocs.  In that context, he underscored that D-8 had made important progress in the intra-trade section and has reached 150 Billion USD.  “We are looking forward to achieving target of $500 billion for intra-trade, which has been set by our respective governments for 2018”, added Dr. Mousavi. 

During the visit Mr. Budak gave information about the economy of the city of Antalya. “We have a good experience on tourism and agriculture and in particular we want to share our experiences in these two sectors with the D-8 countries, and we would be pleased to host one of the D-8 meetings on these sectors” he pointed out. 

Dr. Mousavi also met with President of Akdeniz University, Prof. Israfil Kurtcephe as part of his visit to Antalya and discussed the possible cooperation in higher education, scientific research and strengthening of academic linkages between the D-8 Countries. Afterward his meeting with Mr. Kurtcephe, Secretary-General Mousavi made a presentation to academicians and students and where he focused on D-8 activities, achievements as well as its challenges. The conference ended with the round of questions by the audience at the university.