D8 leaders vow to up mutual trade

The Group of Eight Developing Countries (D8) has wrapped up its latest summit in Nigerian capital Abuja, urging more trade and investment between its member states.

The seventh summit of D8 drew to a close on Thursday with the circulation of a final resolution, the Abuja Declaration 2010, which stipulates the need to boost investment amongst the member states — namely Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan — in order to deepen economic relations, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The resolution states that the current intra-D8 investment level fails to meet the group’s capacities.

The present “amount of trade between the group is five percent of the whole foreign trade, but the goal is to exceed it to 20 percent by 2020,” Abdolreza Hanjani with the D8 Federation of Chambers of Commerce told Press TV.

Meanwhile, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the current rotating chair of D8, has called for further private sector participation in the advancement of the group’s economy.

During the summit, the member states also reached preliminary agreement on preferential trade, multilateral agreement on administration, assistance in customs activities and simplification of visa procedures for the nations’ businesspeople.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was among three other heads of state and four high-ranking representatives at the summit, proposed Iran’s suggestions to enhance partnership among the D8 member states, including focus on agricultural and industrial activities, exchanging new technologies and producing renewable energies as the focal points of economic cooperation.