Kaduna — The Chambers of Commerce and Industry in eight developing countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey have resolved to carry out works and prepare road map to increase trade volume among the D-8 countries to $500bn by 2023.

This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the D-8 Chambers of Commerce and Industry Izmir meeting. Reading the communique in Kaduna, yesterday, the President of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Abdul Alimi Bello, said that the meeting planned to enhance trade between D-8 countries with Bangladesh in silk and mango, Turkey in culture fishing, leather and shoes sectors, Nigeria in construction, mining, agriculture and energy fields.

According to the communique, the D-8 countries called for, at least, half billion dollars reciprocally to each member country. They also disclosed their plan to regulate visa applications among member countries and provide five years visa for business men with multiple entries.

The member countries resolved to abolish existing commercial and economic restrictions obstructing economic co-operation among them, abolish custom duty tariffs among countries and enhance banking operations among member countries.

Some other points highlighted in the communique included signing the double taxation avoidance agreement, tourism among member countries, provion of scholarship by the Izmir University of Economics to one student from each chamber of commerce and industry that participated in the meeting, development of know-how and technology transfer among the D-8 countries and participation in trade exhibitions in D-8 countries to increase commercial and economic interaction.

Alimi disclosed that the proposed to hold D-8 Chambers of Commerce and Industry online exhibition (e-fair).

Source: Allafrica (exact quotation)