Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, the D-8 Secretary General participated in the opening ceremony of the Fifth General Assembly of Asian Mayors Forum (AMF) held on 30 November to 02 December 2018, in the city of Gaziantep, Turkey.
Under the theme “Smart, Resilient and Livable Asian Cities”, the meeting discussed key topics with the participation of a large number of Mayors, experts, academicians and technical authorities from the member cities of the Forum.
Ambassador Ku Jaafar also paid courtesy visits to the Governor of Gaziantep, Mr. Davut Gül, the Mayor of Gaziantep, Ms. Fatma Şahin, the rector of Gaziantep University, Prof. Dr. Ali Gür, the rector of Hasan Kalyoncu University, Prof. Dr. Edibe Sözen, the rector of Sanko University, Prof. Dr. Güner Dağlı and the Deputy President of Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Murat Acıoğlu. He was warmly welcomed by the authorities and institutions. The Secretary General conveyed the new vision of D-8 in its second cycle of its existence and underlined that at this juncture, it is very keen to undertake common projects that would directly benefit people to improve their living standards and referred to the importance of private sector and public-private partnership in pursuing new projects, strengthening business networks and increasing intra-trade among Member States.

In his visits to the universities, the Secretary General informed about the Organization’s new focus on Research and Innovation through a number of promising initiatives that include the D-8 International University, the D-8 NPRI (Network of Pioneers for Research and Innovation), the D-8 ECSTRA (Enhancing the Cooperation on Science, Technology and Research Among D-8 Member States) and the D-8 Research Council. In his visit to the Chamber of Commerce of Gaziantep, he apprised that the D-8 CCI has finalized their Statute and held their first Plenary Assembly on the sideline of the the 41st Session of the Commission and the 18th Session of the Council Meeting held in Antalya from 1 to 3 November 2018. Ambassador Ku Jaafar also presented the copies of the Statute and the Joint Declaration of the Fist Plenary Assembly of the D-8 CCI and further discussed enhancing collobaration. As conveyed by the President of the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, Gaziantep is an industrialized city with a great potential and with exports exceeding its imports.