Gholam Hossein Shafei, vice president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), said on Tuesday that Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member states adopted a 10-year plan to boost trade and investment.
He made the remarks in the 21st meeting of executive committee and specialized committee of ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the first meeting of consortium of private and public companies active in the field of energy.
Shafei said that ECO Chamber of Commerce has decided to adopt modern methods to strengthen trade and commerce among member states.
According to Shafei the level of foreign trade of ECO member countries stood at $635 billion in 2015 while the inter-regional trade among ECO members was limited to about $51 billion.
He said that Iran considers ECO as an ideal opportunity for regional cooperation and believes that the organization could have significant achievement regarding economic development of regional countries.
There exist plenty of capacities for development of cooperation in ECO region, but now it needs a new architectural design for development, because after two decades it needs a new model of regional interactions in different fields of trade, transit, agriculture, human resources development, education and culture.
The vice president of Iran Chamber of Commerce asked ECO decision-making body to consider strengthening key development factors among member states including increasing banking cooperation, activation of ECO Development and Trade Bank, easing visa procedures for businessmen and investors, implementation of preferential tariffs and removal of discriminatory tariffs.
Meanwhile, Iran Chamber of Commerce is hosting the first meeting of consortium of private and public companies active in petrochemical energy to create convergence in execution of projects by companies and domestic consortiums of member states.
Shafei further asked for removal of obstacles and execution of the agreements already signed by ECO member states.
Sevral high ranking officials from ECO member states including Iran Presidential Chief of Staff Mohammad Nahavandian, Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization Khalil Ibrahim Akch and President of The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu were present at the meeting.
Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan Republic, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan are members of ECO.
