D-8 Organization has just successfully organized a Task Force meeting on SMEs, in Tehran, Iran on 6-7 December 2010. This meeting is the follow up to previous SME Task Forces meeting held back to back with the 5th Meeting of D-8 WGIC (Working Group on Industrial Cooperation) and 1st D-8 Ministerial meeting on Industry in Tehran, Iran on February 28-March 2, 2010. This recent meeting is formally titled as “the First D-8 SMEs Governmental Bodies Meeting”.

As known, during the 4th D-8 WGIC meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on 10-12 November 2008, a total of 11 Task Forces was established to strengthen future cooperation within D-8,  namely: (1) Automotive (Coordinator: Iran, Egypt, and Indonesia); (2) Energy, Power Sector and Conservation (Coordinator: Turkey, Nigeria); (3) Food production through Mechanization (Coordinator: Malaysia); (4) Cooperation/Transfer of Technology (Coordinator: Turkey, Iran); (5) Petrochemicals and Fertilizer (Coordinator: Indonesia, Iran); (6) Cement (Coordinator: Iran); (7) Steel (Coordinator: Iran); (8) Textile (Coordinator: Egypt, Indonesia); (9) Standardization and Intellectual Property Rights (Coordinator: Turkey, Iran); (10) SMEs (Coordinator: Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria); and (11) Electronics and IT (Coordinator: Malaysia).

The meeting has outcomed an agreement in expanding industrial and technological cooperation as well as promoting the quality level of technical, engineering, and commercial relations of SMEs alongside planning to access an appropriate share of the market through CO-BRANDING, and concurred to carry out approved items of the D-8 SME Task Force Meeting, February 2010 – Tehran.

Some concrete steps that has been agreed are to establish a Communication Network to undertake the necessary coordination, follow-up, implementation of agreements and planning the next Meetings of D-8 SMEs Governmental Bodies in collaboration with present delegates of Member Countries and D-8 Secretariat to implement activities assigned in the meeting.

It is also agreed that in order to exchange successful experiences in terms of policies and projects on supporting SMEs and appropriate supportive measures in Member Countries, the Communication Network shall provide an opportunity through which Member Countries can exchange their experiences in the form of Best Practice Workshops according to a designed schedule which has resulted from the meeting.

Another important point is the commitment to hold the training workshops for SMEs and SMEs Governmental Institutions Staff in addition to sharing successful experiences in the form of workshops using respective international institutions such as Colombo Plan, JICA, etc.; banking and monetary institutions such as the Islamic Development Bank, and financial resources of international institutions and Member Countries to develop cooperation among D-8 countries.

The meeting also resulted in the agreement to exert effort in creating a common brand (co-branding) to assist SMEs’ access to the market.

The member countries also agreed to establish a Legal Entity to guarantee international investment, insurance, mitigating vulnerability of small and medium enterprises and financial risks resulting from joint ventures between industrial units of Member Countries, as well as allocating a part of an existing / new Industrial Park in favor of small and medium enterprises which are doing international activities in Member Countries.