D8 Economists to Meet in Ankara Friday

8) group are slated to meet in Ankara, Turkey, later this week.

Representatives from Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria will meet in the Turkish capital on Friday to discuss preferential trade tariff agreements and also signing the related pacts by the member-states.

The Developing-8 is a group of developing countries with large Muslim populations that have formed an economic development alliance. It consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

The D8 was founded by Necmettin Erbakan, former Turkish Prime Minister. The group was established after an announcement in Istanbul, Turkey on June 15, 1997. Membership is open to countries other than the current member-states, though no expansion is currently planned.

The D8 summit is held annually with the aim of exchanging views among the member states.

Iran’s representative at the D8, Seyed Ali Mohammad Moussavi, started his career as the group’s new secretary-general in Istanbul, Turkey, earlier this year.

Moussavi started his mission at the center of the D8 secretariat in Istanbul after he took over the position in November for a period of four years.

The ministers of the D8 elected Iran’s representative as the new secretary general of the grouping in their meeting in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in November, 2012.