Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead the Bangladesh delegation at the 10th D-8 Summit on Thursday to be participated by leaders of Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hand over the D-8 Chairmanship to Prime Minister Hasina.

Before the Summit, the 19th D-8 Council of Ministers will be held virtually on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen will lead the Bangladesh side.

The theme of the D-8 Summit is “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing the Power of Youth and Technology” and the Summit will adopt two documents “D-8 Decennial Roadmap 2020-2030” and “Dhaka Declaration 2021”.

Also read: D-8 Youth Summit: Dhaka for achieving SDGs engaging youth

Bangladesh will host the 10th D-8 (Developing-8) Summit virtually in the context of COVID-19 new normal scenario that will focus on trade, investment, mineral resources, tourism, ICT, climate and Rohingya issues.

“These are the things we’ll try to focus on through dialogue and discussions,” said Foreign Minister Momen.

Dr Momen said they will seek support from all for a “durable solution” to the Rohingya crisis and address the challenges posed by climate change.

On trade issues, he said there is a lot of potential to boost trade among the D-8 member states which remained untapped. 

Prime Minister Hasina attended the first D-8 Summit held in 1997 and Dhaka successfully hosted the second D-8 Summit in 1999.

Also read: Dhaka for promoting intra-trade, investment in innovation among D-8 members

Through the 10th Summit, Bangladesh will assume the chairmanship of D-8 for the term of two years from Turkey which will create a new avenue for Bangladesh to share its development success story globally and will help expand its relations with the outside world, Dr Momen said.

The D-8 aims for Economic Cooperation to improve the member states’ position in the global economy, to diversify and create new opportunities in trade relations, to enhance participation in decision-making at international level, and to improve standards of living.

Meanwhile, the 43rd Session of the D-8 Commission was held on April 5-6. On April 5, D-8 Business Forum and first D-8 Youth Summit were held on the sidelines of the Summit.

The Summit will put emphasis on strengthening of intra-trade among D-8 member states and in that context will urge the member states to ensure benefits from the D8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) through its proper implementation.