D-8 leaders address development issues

Egypt's President Mubarak inaugurated the third Summit of the Developing Eight (D-8) Group at the Presidential palace in Heliopolies. Mubarak gives his speech and then, taking the floor, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid praised efforts exerted by Bangladesh while holding the chairmanship of the previous session of the group.

President Wahid reviewed economic development problems and the effects of globalization on developing countries.

He underlined the importance of both private and public sectors, governments' task is fighting poverty and alleviating suffering of the people while the private sector's mission is dealing with financial institutions.

He called on developing inter-trade relations between the developing countries, especially the D-8 states.

"He stressed the importance of Cairo meeting for strengthening cooperation between the Group's member states. The G-8 third summit will enable us to have joint constructive dialogue," he added.

Addressing the session, Turkish President Ahmad Necdet Sezer said that promoting cooperation between the D-8 will prop its status at the international level.

"The least developing countries are much more affected by international challenges and circumstances than major countries," he said.

He urged advanced states to help the developing countries by directing part of their investments them so as to enable them fight poverty.

He underlined the importance of education, information technology and democracy for fighting poverty. He called on international organizations to find out radical solutions to problems of poverty.

Turkey praises the new rounds of talks within the framework of the World Trade Organization.

He also referred to the importance of cooperation between the group's members in the fields of environment and agriculture. "Cooperation in energy domain is also very important," he added.

"Negotiations between the group's members will come up with many positive results," he said.

He expressed thanks to Egypt and to President Mubarak for hosting the summit.

Taking the floor, Pakistan's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf said that he was pleased with his visit to Egypt stressing the importance of Cairo Summit held under President Mubarak's chairmanship.

He underlined the importance of the role of the private sector and businessmen for pushing forward D-8 inter-trade.

Musharraf also stressed the importance of exchanging information among the group's members, especially in the domains of economy, agriculture and medium industries.

He added that Pakistan has focused on these fields for their importance in achieving development and combating poverty.

He referred to positive points of globalization, among which are the exchange of information and technology. "But globalization also has clear negative effects on developing economies," he said, warning against the gravity of debt problems on development in such countries.

Musharraf underlined the importance of peace and stability for development, referring to the Middle East suffering in this respect.

He called for unifying ranks for finding a just solution to the Palestinian problems.

"The same problem of instability is also embodied in Kashmir," he said hoping that the Islamic world would support its issue. He also referred to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, calling on the international community and the Islamic states to work for alleviating the suffering of the Afghan people.

Malaysian Deputy Premier Abdullah Ahmad Haji called on the group's member states to consider drawing up future plans so as to face up the challenges of globalization and strengthen cooperation between them to achieve development.

He also urged them to cooperate in order to achieve the group's objectives.

"The developing countries need to promote their human resources and narrow the gaps between them and the advanced world through cooperation with each other," he added.

"It is important to have an early warning system against financial and economic crises that might hit the group's states in the future," he said.

Taking the floor, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi conveyed greetings of President Mohamed Khatami of Iran to President Mubarak and to the D-8 third summit.

He expressed hope that Egypt's chairmanship of the group would be successful.

"Globalization has positive aspects if neutrality applied, away from bias which leads to poverty and widens the gap between the third world and the advanced world," he added.

"The World Trade Organization has not so far achieved the aspired goals," he said.

"Kharazi noted that Israel's horrible practices in the Palestinian lands led to grave economic circumstances," he said.

He called for holding a constructive dialogue between the Islamic group's states for cooperation.

He referred to capabilities of the D-8 states for promoting cooperation between them and defend their joint interests.

"The Cairo summit is a "corner stone" in D-8 group history within the framework of challenges that it faces," he said.

"It is necessary to increase trade exchanges," he added.

The session then was adjourned so as to start the first working session of the D-8 third Summit.