Nigeria Content Online

Eight
developing economies including Nigeria, Iran and Pakistan aim to reach
a preferential trade agreement by next year to try to double trade and
deepen economic cooperation, government officials said on Thursday.

Heads of state and
ministers from the Developing Eight Countries (D8) — Iran, Nigeria,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey – met in
Nigeria to discuss developing business ties and reducing trade barriers.

“While the role of
government as a catalyst and enabler of economic growth remains
pivotal, the primary driver of this process must be the private
sector,” Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan told the summit in the
capital Abuja.

Trade between the
member nations of the D8, which was created in 1997 to try to foster
economic cooperation between developing nations, is estimated at around
$68 billion a year, or about three percent of global trade.

Delegates said the
grouping had failed to meet its potential because only Iran and
Malaysia had ratified a trade agreement, the outlines of which were
agreed several years ago. Other nations disagreed on which goods would
be subject to reduced tariffs.

“The trade
statistics among D8 countries may appear positive but this success may
be mainly due to existing bilateral trade initiatives rather than …
the cooperation of the D8 as an organisation,” Malaysian Deputy Prime
Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.

The main traded
goods within the bloc include petroleum products from Nigeria,
petrochemicals and edible oils from Malaysia, consumer goods, cars and
basic raw materials such as rubber.

“The aim is to
double trade in the next five years,” Abdul Qadir Memon, Pakistan’s
deputy secretary at the commerce ministry, said on the sidelines of the
meeting, attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish
President Abdullah Gul.

“The most important step is the preferential trade agreement which
we are aiming to operationalise by Jan 1, 2011, that is the target date
… We thought that by 2006 we would have been able to implement the
agreement but unfortunately there have been delays,” he said.