On the occasion of the 45th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the D-8 Secretary-General, Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari met Mr. A.K.M Shajahan Kamal, Minister of Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh on 6th May 2018 at the latter’s office in Dhaka. The Secretary-General was warmly welcomed by the Minister.

The Minister congratulated the Secretary-General for his appointment as the new Secretary-General of D-8 and expressed confidence that he will take the Organization to the next level.

Ambassador Ku Jaafar congratulated the Minister for Bangladesh’s graduation from the status of least developed country (LDC) to a developing one. He informed the Minister of the latest developments taking place within the Organization, particularly the Istanbul Declaration 2017 and D-8 Istanbul Plan of Action adopted at the 9th D-8 Summit held in October 2017 in Istanbul. He informed the Minister that Tourism is one of the priority areas of D-8 cooperation. He mentioned that D-8 is working towards developing a comprehensive tourism strategy by December 2018 with the aim of its adoption at the 10th D-8 Summit. The tourism strategy will address issues such as tourism facilitation and joint marketing projects, cultural, religious, historical, health/medical, entertainment and eco-tourism. Thus, Malaysia is going to host 2nd D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Tourism on 15-18 October 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to finalize the strategy. The Secretary-General invited the Minister to participate in the meeting. The Minister expressed his hope to participate in D-8 Ministerial Meeting on tourism.

The Secretary-General also mentioned that D-8 Member States have the huge potential for Halal tourism and products and that recently the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) was held from 4-7 April 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where numerous companies from D-8 Member States participated.

The Minister mentioned that tourism in Bangladesh is a flourishing sector and Chittagong is one of the main destination for tourist. Minister expressed his hope to participate in D-8 Ministerial Meeting on tourism.