Bloc of Muslim majority countries eye $500b annual trade by 2030

BAKU AZERBAIJAN (Web Desk) - Ambassador Isiaka Abdul Qadir Imam, secretary-general of the Developing-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation (D-8), has said the bloc of Muslim majority countries with a total of 1.2 billion population is eyeing $500 billion annual trade by 2030.

The D-8 is a multilateral bloc comprising Pakistan, Turkiye, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Azerbaijan became the 9th member of D-8 forum last year.

Imam said the D-8 is entering a new era of visibility and collaboration as it expands its membership and deepens cooperation across trade, calling the D-8’s demographic weight one of its greatest strengths with a massive consumer market.

The secretary-general said inter-D8 trade has grown sharply from $14 billion in 1997 to $145 billion in 2023, but the figure remains far below the group’s true potential.

“With a market of 1.2 billion people, $145 billion is still very, very small,” he told Arab News on the sidelines of the first ever D-8 Media Forum in Baku.

“Our target is to reach $500 billion in inter-trade by 2030. Our leaders have given us that mandate, and we are working toward it.”

Imam said the bloc’s members were focusing on trade and economic cooperation.

“Other areas, we’re also into energy, we’re also into agriculture, tourism, youth economic cooperation, agriculture and food security,” he said.

Imam outlined several milestones the D-8 has reached over nearly three decades, including a permanent secretariat in Istanbul that has been operating for 28 years, the creation of the D-8 Tourism City of the Year Award, a D-8 Agricultural Research Center in Faisalabad supporting food security initiatives and a D-8 SME Center in Abuja to help small businesses expand into regional markets.

“These are concrete institutions making an impact on the ground,” Imam said.

One of the D-8’s most important achievements, Imam said, is the Preferential Trade Agreement that lowers tariffs and eases trade barriers across member states.

“Getting eight countries to agree on such an instrument is a major achievement,” he added.

He said the Media Forum in Baku is an important part of that effort, helping raise awareness of the D-8’s work and strengthening collaboration among journalists and media institutions across member states.

“The whole idea is to see how we can tell our own story from the perspective of the Developing-8 Organization,” he said.

“So, this is why we’re having this forum, to let the world know who we are, what we have achieved so far.”