Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Prof Muhammad Yunus is likely to attend the D-8 summit to be held on December 16-19 in Cairo in December, 2024, sources in Dhaka and Cairo said.

Egypt's Ambassador to Bangladesh Omar Fahmy handed the invitation letter from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to the chief adviser at the Chief Adviser's Office in Dhaka's Tejgaon.

The ambassador said that the heads of government of at least five countries — Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Nigeria — have confirmed their participation in the summit to be held on December 16-19.

He said an important sideline meeting at the conference will discuss how to support the Palestinians against Israeli aggression. He also expressed his government's support for the interim government's efforts to ensure a democratic transition following the student-led July-August uprising.

The chief adviser welcomed this support and hoped that Egypt and Bangladesh would work hand in hand in various international forums including OIC and D-8. He said that participation in the D-8 summit in Egypt will be seriously considered.

Ambassador Fahmy expressed hope that a delegation of Bangladeshi businessmen will also visit Egypt during the D-8 conference. He said Egypt wants to benefit from Bangladesh's experience in the garment and pharmaceutical sectors and learn jute cultivation.

He also opined that the agreement and memorandum of understanding which have not yet been decided in the fields of agriculture, textiles and medicine between the two countries should be accelerated.

In the meeting, the Egyptian ambassador confirmed Egypt's support for Bangladesh's candidacy for the UN Security Council non-permanent seat for the fiscal year 2031-2032. He also sought Dhaka's support for Cairo's candidacy for the post of UNESCO Director General.

Besides, the ambassador of Egypt emphasised on the resumption of foreign office consultation between Bangladesh and Egypt. The first Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) between the two countries was held in 2018. But the second FOC was supposed to happen in 2021, but it has not happened yet…….

Meanwhile, the D-8 organization was launched on June 15, 1997, after Turkey’s then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, proposed the creation of an economic group consisting of eight emerging economies from the Muslim world, including Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

“The D-8 countries command a combined GDP of about $4 trillion and a total population of 1.16 billion,”

D-8 was instrumental in introducing Islamic banking. Today it has developed to something huge. It has also developed into a system that is valued at trillions of dollars and more countries, even non-Muslim ones, are adopting this system; that is a success story.

D-8 counties have set a target that after 20 years of completion of the first cycle; that inter-trade among member states should reach something like $500bn. When D-8 started in 1997, inter-trade among member countries was $15bn, but in 2017, it reached $150bn.

The Gross Domestic Product per capita in East Timor was last recorded at 1360.51 US dollars in 2023. The GDP per Capita in East Timor is equivalent to 11 percent of the world's average. GDP per Capita in East Timor averaged 1244.80 USD from 2000 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 2059.32 USD in 2021 and a record low of 881.36 USD in 2006.

Sources said Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Prof Muhammad Yunus is likely to hold talks with Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the D-8 summit in Cairo.

Sources said that Dhaka and Cairo are working on setting meetings of Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Prof Muhammad Yunus  with rest D-8 leaders on the sidelines of the summit

Though economic relations with the D-countries is worth several billion US dollars, the political support of  D-8 counties is very important in the context of the new environment, said a Bangladesh diplomat while talking to this country.