Indonesia Encourages D-8 to Re-Focus On Economic Cooperation through Visa Simplification for Businessmen
“Indonesia encourages the member states of Developing-Eight (D-8) to re-focus on increasing economic cooperation through visa simplification for businessmen,” said Ambassador Hasan Kleib, Director General of Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the opening the 2nd Meeting of Consular Authorities of D-8 Member States on the Implementation of Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedure, Jakarta (24/8).
Ambassador Kleib higlighted that the enhancement of economic, trade and investment cooperation among member states is the main focus of Developing Eights (D-8). To attain this ultimate goal, one important measure that needs to be taken by D-8 is to ease procedures on visa process for our businessmen.
Indonesia recommends concrete measures to simplify the visa procedure for D-8 businessmen. The measure can be started with simplifying the visa issuance procedure for fifty D-8 businessmen who have been verified by each chamber of commerce. While waiting the full ratification of the Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedure, such measure will facilitated the issuance of visa in speedy and simple manner.
Secretary General of D-8, Dr. Sayed Ali Mohammad Mousavi extended appreciation to Indonesia for hosting this meeting. Mr. Mousavi hoped that through this meeting, the participants will find solution for challenges in the implementation of D-8 Visa Agreement and to discuss ways and means for further enhancement of the simplification of visa procedures.
The 2nd Meeting of Consular Authorities of D-8 Member States on Implementation of Agreement on Simplification of Visa Procedure is held on 24-25 August 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and attended by the consular authorities of D-8 member states. This meeting is held to fulfill Indonesia’s commitment as pledged on the previous meeting in Tehran, Iran on 2014. Visa simplification process has become one of the D-8 main pillar agreements.
D-8 was established in Turkey through Istanbul Declaration on June 15, 1997, with eight developing countries as its members, namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey and Pakistan. Indonesia has played an active role to support the organizational strengthening of D-8. Under the chairmanship of Indonesia (2006-2008), D-8 enacted D-8 Roadmap 2008-2018 that establishes five priority sectors of D-8 cooperation, namely trade, industry & SMEs, agriculture & food security, transportation and energy. Through this roadmap, it is expected that the intra trade of the member states can reach 15-20% of the total world trade by the end of 2018.
(Source: Director for Socio-cultural Affairs and International Organization of Developing Countries)