D-8 Summit Produces Two Documents for Economic Development
President Jokowi attending the 10th D-8 Summit virtually from the State Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (08/04/2021). (Photo: Bureau of Press, Media, and Information of Presidential Secretariat/Lucas)
The Dhaka Declaration and Decennial Roadmap for 2020-2030 were adopted during the Developing Eight (D-8) Summit, Thursday (08/04).
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo also attended the summit online from the State Palace in Jakarta.
The summit, adopting the theme of “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing the Power of Youth and Technology”, is a biennial meeting of D-8 member states’ head of state / head of government.
“The D-8 Summit was attended by almost all leaders of D-8 member states, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Nigeria. The 10th D-8 Summit was chaired directly by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina as the Chair of D-8,” said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi.
D-8 itself was established on 15 June 1997 to gather economic power of Muslim-majority countries in the diverse Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
During this summit, according to Retno, the D-8 leaders share similar points of view on cooperation to control the pandemic and to push for the acceleration of member states’ economic recovery.
“The pandemic and efforts to cooperate in tackling the pandemic and pushing for faster economic recovery became the highlight among the D-8 leaders in the summit,” she remarked, adding that Dhaka Declaration and Decennial Roadmap for 2020-2030 were adopted in the summit.
“Dhaka Declaration is a declaration that contains political commitments of the D-8’s vision to continue to cooperate in economic development and to improve the bargaining power of the organization at the global scale,” Retno stated, adding that Decennial Roadmap for 2020-2030 serves as a guideline and framework composed by member states of the D-8 to achieve the commitment stipulated in the Dhaka Declaration within a decade.
In the meantime, Turkey handed over its position as Chair of D-8 to Bangladesh during the meeting.
For the record, the summit held on 8 April 2021 was the peak of a series of D-8 meetings, which began from 5 April and include a commission meeting, foreign minister meetings, and some other side events, such as a youth summit and a business forum.
A number of initiatives that were also ratified in the 10th summit include the soft launching of D-8 Payment Card, D-8 Network of Pioneer for Research and Innovation, and D-8 Creative, Economy, and Financial Center. All of which aim to facilitate cooperation among member states of the D-8. (UN) (DH/EP)
