D-8 nations agree at Dhaka meeting to implement PTA by Oct 2022

29 Jul '22

2 min read

Pic: Developing-8 (D-8)/Twitter

At the ministerial meeting of the Developing-8 (D-8) club of nations in Dhaka recently, members agreed to begin implementing the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) signed by them by October this year and cooperate multilaterally to maximise business prospects and opportunities. All members except Egypt have ratified the PTA, which became effective on August 25, 2011.

Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Turkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria are D-8 members.

Issues related to food and energy crises were also discussed at the meeting.

Virtually inaugurating the 20th session of the D-8 council of ministers from her official residence, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the D-8 countries celebrating the 25th anniversary of the bloc should focus on specific areas like implementation of the PTA, a D-8 Economic Zone, diversified agriculture to ensure food security and alternative sources for addressing energy crisis.

She also invited D-8 members to invest in Bangladesh’s special economic zones.

The PTA implementation would help promote intra-country trade, remove barriers, and boost economic cooperation among the member states.

A D-8 ministerial meeting on energy would be organised in the wake of the global energy crisis and Iran is keen to cooperate in the energy sector, Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi media reports.

The D-8 countries are home to about 13 per cent of the world population and account for almost $4 trillion worth gross domestic product and $1.5 trillion of export.

Foreign ministers of Iran, Pakistan and Turkiye participated in the hybrid meeting virtually while deputy ministers and representatives from other countries joined in person.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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