President Erdoğan calls for trade in local currencies among D-8 nations

Speaking at the the ninth Developing 8 (D-8) summit in Istanbul on Friday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “In recent years, we have witnessed the great wounds inflicted by terror attacks and economic crises. From Afghanistan to Iran, from Rakhine to Syria and Nigeria, we witnessed the struggles of our friends. We came to today by suffering though repeated economic crises that occurred almost every decade. In a world where there is such wealth, our African brothers and sisters struggle to meet their basic needs."

“We are passing through a period when some are differentiating between good and bad terrorists. There are those who are trying to make terrorism synonymous with Islam. Murderers like Boko Haram are being associated with Islam. There is a helplessness that transformed the Mediterranean into a refugee graveyard. The need for the principles of the D-8 and the values it advocates has increased,” he added.

The international summit is themed “Expanding Opportunities through Cooperation,” and was attended by many world leaders including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Iran's first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri and the vice president of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla.

“We, as D-8 countries, have geographical features that few countries in the world have. We have young populations. Our average annual growth rate is 6 percent. We have many collaborations in fields ranging from tourism to energy to logistics,” Erdoğan said.

“In terms of facilitating trade, we place importance on visas and customs agreements. We can venture into various field joint production projects, especially in the defense industry. We have great potential in every field from education to transport. We must take steps to speed up the decision-making process. I believe we should strengthen our organization with new members. The voting process could become clogged with unanimity,” he continued.

“If we open the way to using our national currencies, we will have made important steps. I want to unite our Central Banks to set up a clearing house,” he added.

The ninth summit marks the 20th anniversary of the organization.

On June 15, 1997, the D-8 was established after Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan proposed the formation of an economic group consisting of eight emerging economies from the Muslim world.

Alongside Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan created an organization based in Istanbul.

Today, the organization has a combined GDP of $3.7 trillion and includes more than one billion people -- around 15 percent of the world’s population.

Two of its members -- Turkey and Indonesia -- are among the group of the world’s 20 biggest economies.