REVITALISATION EFFORTS OF D8 BEGINNING TO SHOW RESULTS, SAYS DPM

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin
Yassin said Sunday night that Malaysia is pleased with its chairmanship and the
revitalisation efforts of The Group of Eight Developing Islamic Countries (D-8)
as results were beginning to show.

In his keynote address at a dinner in honour of foreign ministers who will
be attending the 12th Session of the D-8 Council of Ministers meeting Monday
and declaring open the meeting, he said this meeting would be the last that
Kuala Lumpur would be hosting as the chairman of the grouping, which Malaysia
assumed last year.

Malaysia will hand over the chairmanship to Nigeria and the African country
will host the 7th D-8 Summit in mid-2010.

"I believe that our efforts are bearing fruit. I look forward to Nigeria's
chairmanship and I am confident that under Nigeria's able leadership, the D-8
will continue to be reinvigorated, leading to meaningful benefits for the people
of our countries," he said.

The D-8 was established on 15 June 1997 in Istanbul, Turkey and comprises
Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Muhyiddin said last year, the 6th Summit in Kuala Lumpur adopted the D-8
Road Map for Economic Cooperation in the Second Decade of Cooperation 2008-2018,
which represents the guideline for a vision and framework for enhancing
cooperation, providing guidance and formulation for the implementation of D-8
programmes and projects.

He also pointed out the adoption of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration at the 6th
Summit that contained a wide range of issues of importance to D-8 member
countries, including how they could deepen cooperation through joint venture
projects with the private sector in boosting food production.

Muhyiddin said Malaysia hosted the D-8 Ministerial Meeting on Food Security
in February last year and that Kuala Lumpur Initiative adopted by the meeting
established five prime movers to implement its initiatives.

However, he stressed that D-8 should seriously implement the Action
Plans that the grouping had approved to ensure member countries benefit from
their membership.

"These Action Plans need to be acted upon expeditiously and effectively to
ensure that we achieve the desired and established goals. I would like to urge
each of us to set a clear target for ourselves and strive hard to make sure that
we will successfully meet these targets," he said.


Muhyiddin said agriculture held promising potential to enable the
governments to address the basic needs of the people, provide food security,
overcome rural poverty, create employment and thus lead to economic prosperity.

"As food security is a main concern of all member countries, I believe that
the Kuala Lumpur Initiative which enjoys the consensus of member countries,
holds the best prospect for successful cooperation and implementation," he said.

Muhyiddin also outlined Kuala Lumpur's aspirations for the D-8 namely
implementing the Action Plan as the main priority and focus efforts on launching
feasible projects that could be undertaken by the private sector.

Besides this, prioritising specific areas of collaboration such as
agriculture, Islamic finance and D-8 intra-trade promotion.

"In the case of Malaysia, we have benefited from our involvement in Islamic
finance and banking. Malaysia is currently the largest sukuk issuer, having
issued US$94.7 billion in 2008, which is 62 per cent of outstanding global
sukuks issued in 2008, which stands at US$152.74 billion," he said.

Muhyiddin also stressed that the early ratification of the three D-8
agreements, namely the Preferential Trade Agreement, Customs Cooperation and
Visa Facilitation were the necessary precusors for a successful and beneficial
economic cooperation.

-- BERNAMA