Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said, "We value the transformation of the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement into a new generation trade agreement by expanding its product scope and disciplines, and we are pioneering the efforts in this regard."
Bolat stated that they will participate in the summit to be held in Egypt with a delegation headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and reported that the summit will be hosted by Egyptian President Abdulfettah es-Sisi, the term president.
Bolat drew attention to the expectation of participation at the level of head of government from other D-8 member states as well, saying, "The D-8, which was established by the visionary leaders of the time under the leadership of the late Prime Minister Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan to respond to global challenges, consists of leading political and economic actors not only in the Islamic world but also on a global scale."
Bolat stated that sessions on various topics will be held at the summit, saying:
"Within the scope of the summit, the stage reached in cooperation in various fields such as SMEs, agriculture and food security, youth, tourism, energy, civil aviation and health, especially trade, will be assessed, and the steps to be taken to further advance the existing cooperation will be evaluated. In addition, Azerbaijan's application for D-8 membership will be discussed and the next secretary-general will be determined."
Bolat pointed out that decisions could be taken in the field of trade at the summit as well, recalling that a 10 percent trade ratio target within the D-8 was set in the 2020-2030 10-Year Roadmap adopted at the 10th summit held in Bangladesh.
Giving the information that this rate is currently around 6.6 percent, Bolat said that they expect the decision to start the work to renew the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement to be taken in order to achieve the target.
Emphasizing that they reiterated their proposals to expand the product scope and disciplines of the said preferential trade agreement at the meeting in Istanbul, Bolat stated that it was agreed to conduct a preliminary study on this issue.
Bolat drew attention to the fact that the issue will be reflected in the summit's communique, saying, "We value the transformation of the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement into a new generation trade agreement by expanding its product scope and disciplines, and we are pioneering the efforts in this regard."
"Our trade volume has increased by 22.6 percent in the last 5 years"
Giving the information that the total gross domestic product of the D-8 countries is 4.8 trillion dollars according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, Bolat reported that this corresponds to 4.3 percent of the total production in the world.
Bolat stated that the population in the D-8 countries is 1.2 billion, and the per capita domestic income is approaching 4 thousand dollars.
Drawing attention to the fact that the total exports of the said countries reached 1.12 trillion dollars and their imports reached 1.17 trillion dollars, Bolat continued as follows:
"The exports of the D-8 countries to each other are 75.5 billion dollars, and the imports are 77.7 billion dollars. These data indicate a great potential for increasing trade. On the other hand, our exports to the D-8 countries were 9.1 billion dollars in 2023, and our imports were 13.1 billion dollars. Our trade volume has increased by 22.6 percent in the last 5 years. The share of the D-8 in our exports and imports is 3.6 percent."