Turkish president pushes idea of Islamic megabank

By Gokhan Ergocun and Aysu Bicer

ISTANBUL / ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s president on Thursday promoted the idea of an Islamic megabank, one which could meet the liquidity requirements of Islamic financial institutions as well as financing for infrastructure projects.

Addressing a meeting of the D-8 developing nations via video link, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also reiterated his push for expanded international trade via local currencies.

Since he first called for trade in local currencies at the D-8's 2017 Istanbul summit, developments over the last four year proved the idea is trustworthy and sound, stressed Erdogan.

"To protect our countries from risks based on foreign currencies, we must focus on trading in local currencies," he added.

On the D-8 Network for Research and Innovation, he said the network is critically important, as it enables information sharing between universities and other institutions in fields such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, big data, blockchain, and nanotechnology.

He stressed that D-8 countries should concentrate on high added-value production, based on high technology, for the sake of strong, sustainable growth.

Erdogan also stressed that the D-8’s members must update the bloc to better fit today's needs, transforming it into a project and result-oriented structure.