The 11th Developing Eight Organisation for Economic Co-operation (D-8) Summit kicked off Thursday under President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in the New Administrative Capital (NAC).
The opening ceremony of the summit proceeded with recitation of the holy Qur’an by Quran reciter Hajaj el Tallawy.
The D-8 summit will tackle ways to handle the consecutive global economic and political changes along with promoting economic co-operation among the member states.
A session on the summit is designated to address developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Lebanese crisis.
Established in 1997, the D-8 Organisation for Economic Co-operation is an organisation for economic co-operation between Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
The organisation aims 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.
Addressing the summit, President Sisi stressed that developing countries face significant challenges that hinder their aspirations for prosperity and development, including a lack of financing, escalating debts, a widening digital and knowledge gap, and high rates of poverty, hunger, and unemployment, particularly among youth.
Such obstacles make it exceedingly difficult for these countries to achieve acceptable levels of progress and growth, Sisi added.
Sisi urged concerted efforts among developing countries to address these complex challenges by enhancing mutual co-operation and implementing joint projects and initiatives in various fields, including information and communication technology, digital economy, artificial intelligence applications, agriculture, manufacturing industries, and renewable energy, especially green hydrogen.
He also highlighted the importance of supporting and developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a real driver of development in developing countries.
Despite the economic diversity among member states, there is a shared understanding of the importance of exchanging successful experiments to achieve sustainable development goals, Sisi said.
He affirmed Egypt’s readiness to share its enlightening experiments, particularly its implementation of the “Decent Life” and “Takaful and Karama” initiatives, as well as its infrastructure and urban development projects.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto underlined the importance of fostering co-operation among D-8 members and work for serving interests of peoples.
He said the organisation has big potentials that enable it to be an influential economic force at the global level, underlining the need to develop comprehensive and integrated supply chains among member states.
He called for boosting joint co-operation under the umbrella of the international law to enhance cooperation and sustainable development.
He urged putting aside differences to work as unified power for the prosperity of peoples.
The Indonesian president reiterated commitment of the country to support the organisation, calling for expanding its membership to attract more members to join this constructive co-operation.
He called for benefiting from the current geopolitical developments to address future challenges.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lauded the role played by Egypt in boosting youths’ programmes to empower them economically.
He underlined the importance of enhancing co-operation among member states to face growing global challenges, underlining the need to adopt innovative economic solutions besides the political solution to address current crises.
The world is now witnessing conflicts and tensions impacting international stability, forcing the international organisations, including the D-8, to take measures to adapt with international developments and draft comprehensive strategies for crisis recovery.
He called for supporting young people as they are the key to political growth, saying young people make up most of the populations of the organisation’s member countries unlike western countries whose older people population represent the majority.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that D-8 will be capable of moving ahead and foster partnerships among its member states under the presidency of President Sisi.
He underlined the importance of boosting co-operation and partnership to serve the interests of member states.
He expressed pride in visiting Egypt, thanking President Sisi for the good reception and hospitality he received during the visit.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar underlined the importance of taking necessary steps to achieve comprehensive economic empowerment that would achieve stability and prosperity for D-8 countries.
He also called for adopting an important roadmap to empower youths and boost the role of micro and small-sized enterprises.
He urged the best exploitation of human capabilities, noting that the summit placed education, technical skills, youths empowerment, innovation and economic growth on the top of its priorities to contribute to realizing peace and stability in societies.
