The Secretary-General Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari had a meeting with the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, H.E. A. K. Abdul Momen on 16th September, 2020 in Istanbul during the latter’s official visit to the Republic of Turkey. The two officials had fruitful discussions on several issues.

The Foreign Minister expressed the unwavering commitment of Bangladesh to hosting the 10th D-8 Summit and side events such as Youth Summit, Technology Exhibition, Business Forum and Visit to Rohingya Refugee Camp. He assured the Secretary General that preparations are underway to host the event either physically or virtually.

The Minister observed that there is huge potential for intra-trade in goods and services as well as inflow of invest-able resources in the D-8 Organization and that a lot of work needs to be done in this regard in order for the Member States to benefit immensely.

Furthermore, the Minister scored Bangladesh very high and said the country has done very well in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effects in various areas. According to him, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh introduced stimulus packages in order to revive the economy of the country and the Government of Bangladesh also sent financial aid to its embassies abroad in order to purchase essentials for their distressed citizens residing in their host countries.

Mr. Abdul Momen also mentioned that one hundred Special Economic Zones and twenty-eight high technology parks are being established in Bangladesh and the D-8 Organization can be availed of some of them in order to promote joint ventures, industrial cooperation and technology transfer. He assured the Secretary-General that Bangladesh is a lucrative investment destination and that returns on investment in all areas of economic activities are high and the workforce is highly skilled and unbelievably cheap. The Minister also pointed out that there are plenty of opportunities in the tourism sector that could be explored by Member States. He assured that Bangladesh has connectivity as well as friendly relations with its neighbours.

On his part, the D-8 Secretary-General appreciated the Minister for inviting him to the meeting. He intimated the Minister of preparations to host Ministerial Meetings on Health, Trade and Transportation at the earliest possible time.

He also informed the Minister that the Secretariat has signed partnership agreement with Chatham House in order to have support and assistance in various sectoral tracks, especially the health sector.

Furthermore, the Secretary-General told the Minister that the outcome documents of the Summit, namely the Comprehensive Decennial Road Map 2020-2030 and the Dhaka Declaration are being finalized by the Secretariat and the two documents will soon be presented to the D-8 Commission for its consideration.

In his closing remarks, the Secretary-General solicited the cooperation and support of Bangladesh in order to fully operationalize the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement (D-8 PTA) with a view to substantially increasing the Organization’s intra-trade.