DUSHANBE, March 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — President Emomali Rahmon will depart for Tehran on March 10 to attend the 10th summit meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) that will be held in the Iranian capital on March 11.
According to the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe, during his stay in Tehran, Tajik leader is also scheduled to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to discuss state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran.
The source at the Iranian embassy noted the summit would be preceded by senior officials’ meeting March 7-8 and the meeting of the council of ECO foreign ministers on March 9.
According to information posted on ECO’s websites, the summit will be attended by heads of state/government, heads of Eco regional institutions and specialized agencies as well as representatives of ECO’s partner regional and international organizations. The summit offers a welcome opportunity to ECO leaders to review progress on various projects of the organization, consider new proposals to strengthen regional cooperation and discuss ways and means to implement them. They will consider the report of the chairman of the council of ministers and the report of the secretary general. The global financial crisis and challenges more specific to the region will also come under discussion. The heads of state and government would issue policy guidelines to promote economic cooperation and accelerate regional integration.
ECO’s role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan is an important area of its activities. The meeting will review progress made so far and consider new projects for Afghanistan. In addition, measures to combat drug trafficking and implementation of important agreements, especially the ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) and Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA), would be evaluated.
ECO gives awards for outstanding research work in the fields of economics and environment, culture and literature, science and technology, education and agriculture. These will be presented to winners from Member States on the occasion of the Summit. In addition, the member nations will issue a special postage stamp to mark the 10th ECO Summit.
The Tehran Declaration that will be issued on the conclusion of the summit would reflect progress made in different fields and the future projects and projections. As well, the Declaration will include the decisions and policy guidelines of the ECO leadership to carry forward regional cooperation.
Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the Member States. ECO is the successor organization of Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) which remained in existence since 1964 up to 1979.
In 1992, the Organization was expanded to include seven new members, namely: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The date of the Organization’s expansion to its present strength, November 28, is being observed as the ECO Day.
Over the past 13 years the member states have been collaborating to accelerate the pace of regional development through their common endeavors. Besides shared cultural and historic affinities, they have been able to use the existing infrastructural and business links to further fortify their resolve to transfer their hopes and aspirations into a tangible reality. ECO has embarked on several projects in priority sectors of its cooperation including energy, trade, transportation, agriculture and drug control.
