The 20th session of the council of ministers of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation (D-8) ended at a city hotel on Wednesday.
During the meeting, member countries of the group have agreed to implement a preferential trade agreement (PTA) by the next year.
Addressing the event, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also stressed the need for implementing the PTA within the grouping to make it a strong economic block.
“Previously, seven members had approved the PTA proposal and today Egypt said that they agreed to it,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told the post-meeting briefing.
The meeting put special focus on the ongoing energy crisis and decided to hold a D-8 ministerial meeting on energy security.
“All the members, in principle, agreed to include Azerbaijan in the group but it will be finalised following the formulation of rules for inclusion of new members,” Momen said.
The group, also known as Developing-8, works for development cooperation among the following countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Earlier, addressing the meeting through a virtual platform from Ganabhaban, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed a five-point proposal to exploit the real economic potential of the group.
She urged the member countries to work together to provide the impetus for harnessing our potential toward a prosperous future.
“The D-8, established twenty-five years ago, is now poised to deliver its goal of economic development through creating synergies,” Hasina said.
“Political commitment and meaningful cooperation of the group's public and private sectors were instrumental behind the advancement of the D-8,” she noted. “The immense possibility that we have, if realised properly, will heighten our power as an economic bloc."
Hasina expressed her satisfaction with the decision to finalise the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement.
"It will help harmonise the intra-country trade, liberalise the barriers, and stimulate trade and economic cooperation among the member states," she observed.
The prime minister said as the world was reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic the Russia-Ukraine conflict has pushed the world into fresh danger.
She pointed out that the war and, the subsequent sanctions and counter-sanctions have disrupted the production and supply of food, fertiliser, energy and power, and other commodities causing suffering for countries like Bangladesh.
“Countries like Bangladesh have been bearing the brunt of the impacts of the war the most and prices of essentials have gone beyond the purchasing capacities of the most of people”
"We should all come forward to bravely address this looming humanitarian crisis," she added.
The prime minister said the world is passing through a difficult time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, conflicts, food and energy crisis, climate change and natural disasters.
Hasina said strengthening multilateral cooperation and global solidarity deserves more attention than ever as the world is passing through a difficult time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, conflicts, food and energy crisis, climate change and natural disasters to this end.
Sheikh Hasina said the D-8 countries have been collaborating in the six thrust areas.
She said she placed five proposals to take into consideration by the D-8 leaders as the group is celebrating its 25th anniversary, adding, "It should formulate some specific focus areas for the next decade."
In her first proposal, she said implementation of the PTA is an important element for a successful D-8 as the states have large domestic markets and a combined market which is also considerable.
"Intra-D-8 trade will help accelerate our business prospects and opportunities. It should be our goal to double the intra-D-8 trade from 129 billion dollars in the next decade," she said.
Secondly, she said, "Bangladesh is ready to provide space at our Special Economic Zones for the investment of the member states. If we begin the process now, within the next decade, we will have a robust D-8 Economic Zone."
In the third proposal, the premier said ICT is an area that has immense prospects. The youths of the D-8 countries can be turned into a formidable workforce, she continued.
“About 70 per cent of Bangladesh's population is under 40 years and we have 650,000 registered IT freelancers,” she said.
"We can use this huge manpower to create an IT-based industry and involve the youth in various economic activities," she added.
In her fourth proposal she said, the D-8 should concentrate on diversified agriculture production to ensure food security and a steady food supply.
"Bangladesh is ready to share her best practises and experience with other D-8 member states. We should focus on agriculture production to become self-sufficient in food production within the next decade," she added.
In the last proposal, the prime minister said that all the D-8 member states should be careful about energy usage and the necessity of alternate energy sources.
"I propose that the D-8 focuses on developing capacity by involving other countries who have expertise in alternate energy," she continued.
Listing the economic development of the country in recent times she said, the country’s sustained efforts in all areas of socio-economic advancement have paved the way to graduating from the LDCs.
She also said the Padma Bridge, which was opened last month, is an engineering marvel built entirely with our finance and it is expected to contribute 1.23 per cent to the GDP.
“The D-8 countries with more than one billion people have enormous potential for economic cooperation,” she added.
"Bangladesh has been attracting investment through our liberal, friendly investment policies and arrangement of linkages between foreign and local businesses," she added.
The premier said that Bangladesh's export earnings have increased from USD 18 billion in 2010 to over 52 billion in the last fiscal year.
Bangladesh, currently the 41st largest economy in the world, is set to become the 25th by 2035, she said.
Though Bangladesh is scheduled to hand over the chair of the group to Egypt from the meeting, Egypt requested Bangladesh to continue the chairmanship for another year.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, D-8 Secretary General Ambassador Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, and President of D-8 Chamber of Commerce and Industries (D8CCI) Sheikh Fazle Fahim spoke on the occasion.
Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Masud Bin Momen gave the address of welcome.
