ECO Members Urged to Use their Trade Exchange Potentials
ECO Members Urged to Use their Trade Exchange Potentials
Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Mr. Gholam-Hossein Shafei in meeting with the Head of ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) Mr. Seyed Komail Tayebi urged the ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) members to use their trade exchange potentials.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Mr. Gholam-Hossein Shafei in meeting with the Head of ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) Mr. Seyed Komail Tayebi urged the ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) members to use their trade exchange potentials.

In the meeting, Shafei pointed to the low economic exchanges among the ECO member states and reiterated that member states should identify their capacities and potentials and move on course of joint investments.

He added that today the most important economic problem in the country is scientific poverty in the economy, adding that of course some ECO members once had the same problem but they have passed this stage. He added that when the Central Asian countries became independent, the economic condition was very horrible there but they are now experiencing a very different condition and now getting visa for Turkmenistan is even much more difficult than getting the U.S. visa.

Shafei went on to say that reviewing the condition and history of cooperation between the ECO members is very disappointing, adding that the trade exchange among the ECO member states does hardly reach 10% but the number of signed agreements is very high. He added that if we look at the ASEAN bloc, ECO condition is not comparable with ASEAN.

He reiterated that according to a study conducted some years ago, ECO members and Persian Gulf States possess almost half of the world wealth but where they stand is something debatable.

He expressed hope the ECO member states would use their economic capacities to improve condition for cooperation.

Then Head of ECOSF Mr. Tayebi, for his part, said that ECO economic zone is an intact zone where there are very good cooperation grounds, for example, the opportunity for cooperation between knowledge-based or exporting technical and engineering services is very high. He added that by the way ECOSF is an inter-governmental foundation which is located on Islamabad and it can ease connection of the scientific sector to the economy of ECO member states and called for creating the required grounds for it.

He reiterated that this foundation is one of the specialized agencies of ECO that it can pursue the route of knowledge transfer through management knowledge. He noted that the foundation in this regard can use the models of other blocs like the ASEAN through cooperation.

Tayebi stated that ECOSF pursues the plan for training skills and it has good cooperation with China and Pakistan and it needs the help of ICCIMA and expressed hope good cooperation would be shaped on this course.

He also noted that the foundation should identify capacities of ECO member states and operationalization of these agreements should be reviewed.