TEHRAN - Ministers and other high-ranking officials attending a meeting of trade ministers of the Developing-8 have urged the need for exercising barter trade and using E-trade in exchanges among member countries.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mining, and Trade Mehdi Zeyghami represented Iran in the meeting in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday.

Zeyghami, who is the head of the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), briefed the participating officials on Iran’s stances regarding foreign trade, especially with the D-8 countries.

According to the official, Iran’s membership in BRICS group of developing countries and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is indicative of the country’s resolve to expand economic relations with world nations.

The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, is an organization for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

The combined population of the eight countries is about 1.2 billion or 60 percent of all Muslims, or close to 13 percent of the world's population, and covers an area of 7.6 million square kilometers, five percent of world land area.

In 2006, trade between the D-8 member states stood at $35 billion, and it was around $68 billion in 2010.

Transactions between the eight developing countries accounted for 3.3 percent of world trade in 2010. The total nominal GDP of the eight nations was around 4.92 trillion as of 2023.

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