A six-member Bangladeshi delegation, led by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, reached Istanbul on Wednesday to attend the 9th Summit of the D-8, an organisation for economic cooperation, scheduled to be held on October 20 in the capital city of Turkey, reports UNB.
Prior to the summit, the junior minister will attend the ministerial meeting of D-8 on October 19.
The other members of the delegation are -- director-general (International Organisations) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Turkey, and Consul General of Bangladesh to Istanbul.
The D-8, also known as Developing-8, is an organisation for development co-operation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
The objectives of D-8 are to improve member states' position in the global economy, diversify and create new opportunities in trade relations, enhance participation in decision-making at international level, and improve standards of living.
D-8 is a global arrangement rather than a regional one, as the composition of its members reflects.
The idea of co-operation among major Muslim developing countries was mooted during a seminar on ‘Cooperation in Development’ held in Istanbul in October 1996 and the organisation was set up officially and began its activities with the Istanbul Declaration issued at the end of the summit of heads of state and government held in Istanbul on June 15 in 1997.