Mr. Hossein Ghazavi, President of the ECO Trade and Development Bank (ETDB) paid a courtesy visit to D-8 Secretary-General, Dr. Mousavi, on 27 September 2013. During the meeting, the two interlocutors discussed the possibility of expanding their cooperation through a joint investment. 

Dr. Mousavi provided information on the Secretariat’s recent activities regarding the setting up of the D-8 Joint Investment Fund. He has stated that D-8 intra-trade is almost about 150 billion dollars in 2007 which corresponds to 8 percent of the total trade of the Member Countries. “D-8 should move towards designing and implementing a mechanism through which it can increase intra-trade to the target set for 2018, which is estimated to be 500 billion dollars” he said. “In this respect, D-8 countries have huge economic capabilities and high potentials in the field of industry. Therefore, in order to procure monetary resources for using this potential and implementing the joint projects, D-8 needs to establish a  fund and also keep relations with the other related organizations like ETDB”, he added.

Mr. Ghazavi also mentioned that both ECO and D-8 countries need to overcome the challenges of supply-side as well as trade-related infrastructure and at this point, ETDB is eager to provide financial assistance in order to support trade and facilitate the implementation of trade related activities and development projects in the D-8 countries. 

The meeting provided an important opportunity for the two respective organizations to discuss further cooperation as well as to establish linkages of trade integration which is a powerful engine of economic growth, productivity, innovation and contribute to employment for the Member Countries of both organizations.