ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reached Egypt on an official visit to lead the Pakistan delegation at the 11th Summit of the Developing Eight (D-8) countries being held in Cairo.

Upon his arrival at the airport, PM Shehbaz was received Minister for Public Business Sector of the Arab Republic of Egypt Mohamed Shimi along with senior Egyptian and officials of the Pak­istan embassy in Cairo, according to the PM Office.

The theme of the 11th Summit of D-8, being held from Dec 18 to 19 is “Investing in Youth and Supporting SMEs: Shaping Tomorrow’s Economy.”

At the summit, the prime minister will underline the importance of investing in youth and SMEs for building a strong and inclusive economy; creating jobs; advancing innovation; and promoting local entrepreneurship.

He will also attend the special session of D-8 on ‘Humanitarian Crisis and Reconstruction Challen­ges in Gaza and Lebanon’ to deliberate on the situation resulting from Israeli aggression in the Middle East.

On the sidelines of the summit, the PM is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the participating leaders.

Pakistan delegation includes Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ataullah Tarar.

Founded in 1997 in Istanbul, the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, is an organisation for development cooperation among Egypt, Nigeria, Turkiye, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Iran and Malaysia.

Its objective is to increase economic cooperation among member states to boost economic growth, sustain development and promote and improve standards of living by focusing on bringing improvement and enhancing cooperation in agriculture, trade, transportation, industry, energy and tourism.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2024