The Developing-8 (D8) Organization for Economic Cooperation has swung into action and formed working groups to tackle the impacts of coronavirus among the member states. After Bangladesh’s proposal, a virtual meeting was convened with the representatives of all the member states - Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
They evaluated the consequential adversities of the COVID-19 pandemic from the economic point of view, a foreign ministry press release said on Sunday.
During the meeting, two Working Groups were formed on “Implementation Monitoring” comprises of Egypt, Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria and “Resource Mobilization” with Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey.
At the request of Bangladesh, the incoming Chair of the next D8 Summit, the meeting also decided to establish a separate Working Group to commence assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the national economies of the Member States. The D-8 further planned to host a meeting of the D-8 Ministers of The meeting also identified constraints in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic while discussing mechanisms to build post-pandemic resilient health systems.
Bangladesh earlier took the lead to organise the meeting among the D-8 nations in line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s directive to engage in regional and global platforms for exploring collective solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
As per Bangladesh’s initiatives, the D-8 Health and Social Protection Programme (D-8 HSP), based in Abuja, Nigeria and Chatham House, jointly organised the virtual meeting of the D-8 HSP focal persons, the foreign ministry said. Earlier, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen wrote a letter to his Turkish counterpart, as Ankara is the current Chair of D-8, to explore options how the D-8 member states activate and utilize the D-8 HSP window to support each other during this crisis.
The virtual meeting was attended by professionals from health and foreign affairs ministries of the member states as well as international organizations such as Chestrad International and Corvus Health from USA and officials of Chatham House, Malaysian Technology Development Cooperation (MTDC) and the Islamic World Science Citation Center of Iran (ISC).
A delegation comprising health professionals and administrators from COVID-19 National response team, led by Professor Dr Sanya Tahmina, Additional Director General of DGHS, represented Bangladesh in the meeting. The D-8 Commissioner from Bangladesh and Director General (International Organisations) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Khorshed A. Khastagir also attended the meeting.
The prime objective of the virtual roundtable was to come-up with a mechanism for cooperation in order to lessen the hardship caused by the pandemic through knowledge and resources sharing as well as understanding of country specific needs. During the meeting, the D-8 Member States reviewed the countries’ contexts and impact of the pandemic and shared some ideas and innovative solutions implemented by them in line with global best practices.
The Secretary General of the D-8, Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, while addressing the meeting, emphasized the need to improve partnerships, experience sharing and mutual support and assistance in order to mitigate the consequential adversities of the pandemic.
The Programme Director of D-8 HSP, Dr. Ado Muhammad called for solidarity in areas of commodities, technology, equipment, pharmaceuticals and other much-needed items. Professionals from international organisations discussed the importance of multi-lateral public-private partnerships and joint evaluation of research and innovation in order to tackle the pandemic, the foreign ministry said.
