Photo: The Honourable Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi flanked by His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani during the Sixth D8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur on the 8 July 2008.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was established on 25 September 1969 and comprises 57 Member States. Since its inception, the OIC has been the major organisation of Islamic States that voices and articulates Muslim opinion on issues affecting the Islamic States. As a founding member of the OIC in 1969, Malaysia was the Chairman of the OIC from 17 October 2003 to 13 March 2008.
The OIC Division is responsible for the multilateral relationship between Malaysia and the OIC member states, the OIC General Secretariat, the Group of Developing Eight (D8), the Arab League, and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The Division also oversees other Islamic related issues such as International Al-Quran Reciters Assembly, Israeli-Palestinian issues and Capacity Building Programmes for OIC Countries.
D8 A GLOBAL ECONOMIC GROUP
DEVELOPING 8 COUNTRIES
Objectives and guiding principles
“Developing Eight” (D-8) is an arrangement for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Following the “Conference on Cooperation for Development”, on October 22, 1996, and after a series of preparatory meetings, the establishment of D-8 was announced officially by the Summit of Heads of State/Government in Istanbul, on June 15,1997 (Istanbul Declaration).
The objectives of D-8 are to improve developing countries’ positions in the world economy, diversify and create new opportunities in trade relations, enhance participation in decision-making at the international level, and provide better standards of living.
D-8 is a global arrangement rather than a regional one, as the composition of founding members reflects. Membership will be open to other developing countries subscribing to the goals, objectives, and principles of the group, sharing common bonds.
D-8 is a forum with no adverse impact on bilateral and multilateral commitments of the member countries, emanating from their membership to regional and international organisations.
Principal organs
The principal organs of D-8 are the Summit, the Council, and the Commission.
The Summit, which is the supreme organ of D-8 is composed of the Heads of State/Government of member states. It is convened once every two years.
The Council is composed of the Ministers in charge of Foreign Affairs of member states. It is the political decision making organ of D-8, and acts as a forum for thorough and comprehensive consideration of the issues.
The Commission is the executive organ of D-8. It is composed of senior officials appointed by their respective governments. Each Commissioner is responsible for national coordination in his/her respective country.
Areas of cooperation
At the outset, ten sectors have been identified for cooperation and project development. They are: trade; industry; telecommunications and information; finance, banking and privatization; rural development; science and technology; poverty alleviation and human resources development; agriculture; energy; environment; and health. On the basis of a division of labour for the coordination of D-8 activities, each sector is assigned to a member country.
