Shehbaz to attend D-8 Summit on 19th

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will pursue the targets determined by the Developing-8 Countries (D-8) for technological progress, especially in the field of E-research and allied departments.

The subjects will come under discussion on Dec 19th when Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will reach the Egyptian capital Cairo along with his team, to participate in the 11th summit of the D-8 countries. Egypt is hosting the summit for the second time. Diplomatic sources told The News here on Thursday that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema and Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja will be part of PM’s entourage.

The prime minister will hold bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, host Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Bangladesh interim government’s Chief Advisor Dr Muhammad Yunus, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Nigerian President Bola Ahmad Adekunle Tinubu on the sidelines of the summit. It would be Shehbaz’s maiden meeting with the Egyptian, Indonesian and Nigerian presidents.

According to the agenda, the Economic Wing of the D-8 will approve the establishment of an E-Research Portal which will work as a platform to connect governmental and private research institutions, across the D-8 Member States, enabling seamless collaboration and knowledge sharing. Setting up D-8 NPRI Collaborative Innovation Hubs would also get a green signal. Besides, the dedicated hubs would be focused on priority sectors of biotechnology, green energy, smart agriculture, and advanced manufacturing. According to sources, the summit would sanction the formation of the D-8 Innovation Challenge and Fellowship Programme. It will be designed to attract and empower young researchers and graduate students from the D-8 Member States, fostering the next generation of innovators.

The summit will approve increasing investment in Research and Development as it will call member states to allocate more resources to R&D to drive sustainable economic growth and innovation, the sources said. The leaders would also discuss the Middle East situation and other bilateral and regional developments.