In order to facilitate joint cooperation and bilateral exchanges between their two organizations, His Excellency, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and His Excellency Prof. Widi A. Pratikto, Secretary General of Developing-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation (D8) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 7 October 2010. The signing ceremony took place during the 26th Session of Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (COMCEC) in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, in the presence of the Chairman of COMCEC, President Abdullah Gul, Heads of Delegation and delegates to the 26th COMCEC meeting.

The MoU seeks to encourage the development of joint programmes and projects in all sectors through utilization of the human and material resources of both organizations. They are also poised to exchange experiences and expertise to ensure the speedy implementation of their various economic development programmes.

It should be mentioned that all the eight member-states of the D8 belong to the 57 member states of the OIC and represent about two-thirds of OIC population. The two organizations share common economic objectives and are desirous of collaborating in such areas as agriculture and food security, trade, energy and micro-finance. It is envisaged that collaboration between the two organizations would promote synergies and optimization of resources, while avoiding duplication and over-lapping.

Following the signing ceremony, OIC Secretary General received the D8 Secretary General in audience where they both emphasized on the enormous potentials for cooperation, and agreed on the concrete steps to be taken to actualize the objectives of the MoU, through the immediate identification of short, medium and long term priorities in this direction.

Source: OIC/D-8 Media