The D-8 Commission, the executive organ of the Developing 8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, wrapped up a two-day meeting in Istanbul, discussing decisions taken at D-8’s 9th summit last year.

The Commission gathering is the first formal meeting after last year’s summit which was held under the theme “Expanding Opportunities through Cooperation”.

Addressing news media representatives during the meeting, D-8 Secretary-General Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari said the D-8 focused on the fields such as trade, agriculture, tourism, industry, and transportation.

“The roadmap we have settled on has the vision to broaden our horizon. We believe we can do more for the D-8,” said the secretary-general.

Kerem Kiratli, the director general of bilateral political affairs for the Middle East and North Africa at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, underlined Turkey’s D-8 roles of chairmanship and founding member.

He said the D-8 group — spreading across three continents — has a combined GDP of $3.7 trillion and includes more than one billion people — around 15 percent of the world’s population.

“It has a great potential on an extensive geographical area,” said Kiratli.

Turkey holds the rotating chairmanship of the D-8 for the next two years, and for the second time in 20 years.

On June 15, 1997, the D-8 was launched after Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan proposed the creation of an economic group consisting of eight emerging economies from the Muslim world.

Alongside Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Pakistan created an organization based in Istanbul.

Today, two of its members — Turkey and Indonesia — are among the group of the world’s 20 biggest economies.

Source: Anadolu Agency