Taking into account the situation where the governments of D-8 Member Countries are facing ahead with their economic reforms agenda that envisages increased business and commercial linkages amongst themselves, the Developing Eight Organization (D-8) successfully held its 34th Session of Commission and 16th Session of the D-8 Council of Ministers in Islamabad, in Pakistan’s capacity as the two years Chair of the D-8, during 17-19 December 2013, with full participation from member countries.

The 34th Session of the D-8 Commission was held on 17-18 December 2013. The meeting, which was chaired by H.E. Tanveer Akhtar Khaskheli, D-8 Commissioner of Pakistan, discussed various agenda items in regards with activities of the Organization. In this two days meeting, Report Activities of the D-8 Secretariat, Adoption of Calendar of Events, the status of D-8 Legal Documents, the possible outcome of the 9th Summit of D-8, the Statutory Documents for the Secretariat, and the idea of the establishment of an Eminent Persons Group as well as the appointments of D-8 Directors were discussed fruitfully. The outcome of this meeting would be considered and adopted by the Council of Ministers meeting.

Having the successful meeting of the Commission, the 16th Session of the D-8 Council of Ministers was held on the following day, 19 December 2013 in same place, Islamabad. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Islamic Republic of Iran, H.E. M. Javad Zarif , Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic Turkey, H.E. Ahmet Davutoglu, as well as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Amb. Wardana participated in this important Meeting.

Addressing the inaugural session, H.E. Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs highlighted all possible facilitation to the businessmen and investors from D-8 countries with the help of the framework agreements so that private sectors can interact regularly without any administrative bottlenecks. He also added there were several potential sectors in Pakistan that ready to be invested by other member countries, inter alia, the energy, agriculture and agro-based industries, mineral development, transport and engineering sectors.

Later in the meeting, D-8 Secretary-General Dr. Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, emphasized the momentum of the political significance of the upcoming 9th Summit. He also expressed the Organization was bound to seize this impetus to enter its second life-cycle phase, and strategically devise effective way to achieve its entire goals, in accordance with the ideals of its great founders, as enshrined in the Charter, Roadmap 2008-2018, and later on, Global Vision. In addition, he also underlined several challenges for the Organization in the upcoming years. One of the heaviest was to envisage current intra-D-8 trade of $150 billion to reach to $500 billion by 2018, as stipulated in the Roadmap.

It was worth to mention that the 16th Session of the D-8 Council of Ministers was an important step towards the 9th D-8 Summit, to be held in 2014 in Turkey. In this regard, the Ministers and Heads of Delegations discussed on several important issues, inter alia, the possible outcome of the Summit as well as the idea of the establishment of an Eminent Persons Group (EPG). It was expected that the EPG would study and review the work of the Organization following 16 years of its establishment in order to enhance the dynamism, efficiency and visibility of the Organization and provide recommendations to be submitted to the 9th Summit. In addition, the Meeting also exchanged views on the policies that need to address concerns for taking on board the businessmen and entrepreneurs in D-8 countries in order to forge trade and business linkages.