(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Eleven countries of the Economic Cooperation Organisation have agreed to make a decisive push to expand their mutual business and enlarge their cooperation in such key sectors as investment flows, trade, energy and logistic infrastructure.
These decisions were made at the recently concluded conference of the parliamentarians and government leaders at Islamabad. The countries included three founding members of Economic Cooperation Organisation, or ECO - Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, grouped together since 1985 - and the new members Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkish Cyprus. This is the welcome outcome of the first conference of the Parliamentary Assemblies of Economic Cooperation Organisation (Paeco).
The leaders of these eleven countries adopted a resolution to enforce a 'monitoring role' to rapidly promote and expand regional trade, investment inflows, and cooperation in energy trade, up-gradation of logistics including train and road structure for passengers and freight, and communications.
They will also help promote economic, technical, cultural and financial cooperation. Despite the ECO's 27-year old charter, the progress has been less than rosy, although their leaders acknowledge that the potential in all the listed, and new fields, is tremendous. This is especially in view of the fast-changing world energy, financial and trade environment. The scope and potential of the ECO turns to be still bigger if one realises that all its members are also members of the huge and powerful, Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), which as an alliance itself is powerful in global energy and other sectors. ECO has an Observer status with OIC.
ECO has set goals and targets to push for promotion and development in the fields of industry and farming, trade and investment, energy, minerals and environment, and economic research and statistics, besides the fields mentioned above, separately. Millions of the people in the ECO region demand the alliance to move on a fast track.
Everyone at the Islamabad assembly acknowledged that the potential of the member countries is huge, and if fully explored and exploited, it will be highly productive to generate multi-facetted economic activity, and push incomes of their population up.
The leaders agreed to deploy ECO to start trade in energy. While Central Asia is surplus in energy, its South Asian members, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, are energy-deficit. India needs massive doses of energy, too. One organisation is already on the energy map to handle energy trade. It is Central Asia-South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM). Its key objective is to promote trade in electricity among four countries of the region - the likely energy exporters Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the potential imports: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Besides trade in electricity, natural gas business is yet another big item which has made considerable headway over the recent years. It is the huge project - Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline. Originating at Daulatabad in Turkmenistan, TAPI will cover 1,680 kilometres of territory over the four countries to supply 20 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
At the Islamabad Assembly - PAECO - various leaders sounded highly determined and optimistic over the potential of the economic, business and financial prospects of the region, and how can it turn around the economic well being of the population of the member countries.
Dr Fahmida Mirza, speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, asked Speakers of the Parliaments of member countries and the top leadership to "push their governments for an early completion of the ratification and relevant process of ECO Trade Agreement and ECO Trade & Investment Bank Agreement." ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA), initialled a decade ago, has been ratified by only five countries. Similarly, agreement on ECO Trade and Investment Bank has been ratified by only four countries. Endorsement of these agreements by all the member countries, will help moving forward the private sector of our countries to engage themselves in linkage for trade promotion."
She said: "The members countries have to remove barriers on trade and investment, and create and upgrade linkages through rail, road, air and sea which are to be strengthened for exploiting the full potential of the economic cooperation among the member countries."
Iran's Mehdi Sonai urged leaders from all the ECO countries to "play their role in minimising the influence of big powers in the region. This can only happen when ECO member countries will promote trade and investment among themselves."
A leader from Azerbaijan said "inter-regional connectivity is essential for promoting economic cooperation as the geographic location of the region provides many opportunities for mutual benefits." Dr Fahmida Mirza, while stressing the need for economic cooperation to upgrade the life the region's population, also pointed out the indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the ECO region show " all member countries are lagging behind on issues pertaining to women's empowerment, and mothers' and children's health among others." "The PAECO can make useful headways in these areas by strengthening the forum of ECO Experts Group on MDGs through a combined Parliamentary initiative."
Despite al this determination, for future, the past performance is slow. The ECO's inter-regional annual trade is not more than $40-50 billion. Turkey contributes only 4.6 per cent to Intra-ECO trade. Pakistan's trade with Turkey is growing. It exports $ 3oo million textiles a year-its third big export destination after US and EU. Turkish companies have invested $365 million in Pakistan. Pakistan's trade with Turkey is $1billion a year, and future target is $2billion. While the world around ECO is moving on a fast track of business and improving the people's living standards, the region's leaderships has a huge agenda on its hands. But if ECO gets going it will connect with UAE and Dubai, and help expand the boom - both ways - into the ECO region in the North and Gulf-Middle East in the South. Let's watch out its future outcome !
By M. Aftab - Views expressed by the author are 
his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy
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