President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Hossein Selahvarzi has called on the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation to form a special committee for joint investments among member countries.
Selahvarzi made the remarks in a meeting on Saturday with D8 Secretary General Isiaka Abdulkadir Imam.
He voiced the readiness of Iran Chamber of Commerce to host a meeting of the chambers of commerce of D-8 member states early in 2024 where he said they can discuss working within the framework of the Creative Economy and Financial Center (CEFC), a D-8 payment system.
If D-8 countries are meant to cooperate on tourism, they will need a payment system like CEFC, Selahvarzi said.
He expressed hope that Egypt would sign a D-8 preferential trade agreement as the only member country which has not signed the PTA yet.
Selahvarzi believed that the existing items included in the PTA are limited, proposing for more cooperation to add more items to the list.
In addition to urging the need for forming a special committee for making common investments, he also proposed for holding rotatory exhibitions to display different potentials of member states and for cancelling visa requirements to speed up economic cooperation.
The D-8 secretary general, for his part, said that the volume of trade between D-8 member countries did not exceed $146 billion last year, while adding that the organization intends to increase the figure to $500 billion by 2030.
Noting that the D-8 is seeking to facilitate barter trade among member countries, Imam also touched upon the CEFC payment system which he said does not use currencies like the USD and euro and will not be therefore harmed by the sanctions.
He noted that the implementation of these plans will not be possible without the partnership of the private sectors and the chambers of commerce of the member countries.