The Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade targets increasing the trade exchange between the Developing-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation (D-8) countries to $500bn in 2018, according to Foreign Trade Minister Tarek Qabil.
D-8 is an organisation for development cooperation between Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Integration in economic blocs is no longer a luxury but rather an urgent need to face the brutality of global markets,
Qabil said at the fifth ministerial meeting on D-8 industrial cooperation on Wednesday. This is the first time that Egypt has participated in one of these ministerial meetings.
Trade between D-8 countries amounted to $63bn, which constitutes 5% of world trade. The D-8 targets increasing this proportion to 15% to 20% of world trade by 2018. The exports size of the member states to the rest of the world is about $1.1tr.
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that Egypt is committed to implementing the final recommendations of the fifth ministerial meeting on D-8 industrial cooperation.
Egypt has developed a sustainable development vision of Egypt for 2030 and plans to become one the top 30 countries worldwide in this regard, Ismail said.
The Egyptian government is seeking to advance its education system and technical support for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
“The private sector is a racehorse to achieving sustainable development. We must cooperate with it to implement a number of national projects, such as the Logistics Centre at the Suez Canal Development Project, the New Administrative Capital, 1.5m-acres development project, and the Golden Triangle,” Ismail said.
Head of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ismail Gaber said the authority held meetings with senior officials the D-8 countries to boost investments, encourage trade between the D-8, and promote joint venture companies and businesses.
Turkey is a major trading partner with Egypt, said Gaber .
A website will also be launched with which the D-8 can communicate with each other and share databases, Gaber said.
