Erdoğan says D-8 Organization should expand, establish 'Islamic megabank'

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 10th Summit of the Developing-8 Organization (D-8) via videoconference.

The organization should expand to new countries and set up an "Islamic megabank" to meet the liquidity needs of Islamic finance organizations and the need of increasing infrastructure funds in Muslim countries, he told the summit hosted by Bangladesh.

He also reiterated his call for member countries to trade with their own currencies in order to protect themselves from volatility in foreign exchange rates.

Erdoğan also pointed out the "crookedness" in the coronavirus vaccine distribution to the countries, saying, "We expressed in all platforms that the vaccines, which are our greatest power against the virus, shouldn't be sacrificed for greed for profit."

The D-8 consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Once Turkey produces its domestic vaccine, it will offer it to the benefit of "all humanity," he said.

Turkey's vaccine is still in phase-2, according to a statement made after the "Domestic Vaccine Studies Evaluation Meeting" on March 26. Assoc. Prof. Sezer Oktay said after the meeting that the vaccine would be produced in summer at the latest.

Turkey has been almost completely dependent on China's Sinovac in coronavirus vaccines. A country of 83 million people, it has so far administered two vaccine doses on 7.94 million people, according to the Health Ministry website. (DŞ/VK)