AN INQUIRY INTO THE D-8 EXPERIMENT: AN INCIPIENT MODEL OF AN ISLAMIC COMMON MARKET?

It is now (2005) eight years since D-8 came into existence. D-8 was founded among eight prominent Muslim countries, namely Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Egypt and Nigeria on 15 June 1997. The initial ‘D’ of D-8 refers to the word ‘developing’; in other words, this was the initiative of certain developing nations whereby economic issues were the prime motive.1 The trade between Muslim countries in 1997 was less than 4 percent of their overall trade with the rest of the world. This miniscule rate of trade was no doubt alarming and called for remedies to sort out this anomaly.