The first general conference of Parliamentary Assembly of Economic Co-operation Organisation (PAECO) countries emphasised on the promotion of intra-regional trade, investment and visa free regime to ensure sustainable socio-economic development in the region. The speakers of Assemblies of the PAECO states also urged the member countries to facilitate private sector through supportive legislation and removing numerous barriers, which create hurdles in intra-regional trade and investment.
They also emphasised on strengthening co-operation among the ECO countries for promoting the trade, industrial and agriculture sector along with cultural and historical values. They expressed these views in the first general conference held on Tuesday. Dr Fehmida Mirza, Speaker of the National Assembly, Sabir Asad-Ov, Chairman of the Milli Majlis of Azarbaijan, Dr Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Shoura-e-Islami of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Shukur-Jon Zuhur-Ov, Speaker of the Majlis-i-Namo-yan-da-gon of Majlis-i-Oli Republic of Tajikistan, Jamil Chi-chak, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey , Neamatullah Ghaffari, Second Deputy Speaker of the (W) Olesi Jirga of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the members of Parliaments of these countries.
The conference elected Dr Fehmida Mirza as President of the PAECO member countries up to his second meeting which would be held in Kabul city of Afghanistan. The members of the conference shared their views on the subject of "Parliament''s Oversight Role in Promoting Intra-Regional Trade and Investments to Ensure Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in the ECO Region".
While addressing the conference, Dr Fehmida said that under our collective leadership, the newly-established PAECO will foster strong intra-regional linkages. She said that our focus should be on facilitating the private sector through supportive legislations and removing numerous barriers, which create hurdles in intra-regional trade and investment.
"The importance of building reliable road and rail links in the ECO region hold the key to sustained economic activity. The projects like the North-South and East-West Railways and opening of all-weather road systems are essential for the integration of our Region," she said.
The Speaker said, "All these esteemed speakers were unanimous in their conclusion that the full potential of the ECO, in the fields of trade and investment had not been harnessed. This could be increased by 8 folds if properly undertaken." She said that the crucial ECO Trade Agreement has only been signed by 5 countries while the rest of the 5 countries are out of its fold. Even those, who are signatories to ECO, have not endorsed it so far. This is also the case with ECO Trade and Investment Bank, which was only participated by 4 member states, she said.
She added, therefore, the foremost task before PAECO should be to push our respective governments, through our legislative and oversight role to fully activate these forums. We must also engage into a constructive dialogue through PAECO to ensure 100 percent participation of all member states in all agreed ventures.
Speaker of Iranian Parliament Dr Ali Ardeshir Larijani said that the parliament of Pakistan should emphasise its government for the implementation on the agreement signed between both the countries. He said that there are many memorandum of understatings between Pakistan and Iran, but no progress from Pakistani government.
He said that Iran want visa free regime in ECO countries for economic and trade development as well as felicitation of investment in the region. The Speaker said that ECO countries should support each other for socio-economic, trade, latest science and technology and cultural development. Deputy Speaker National Assembly Fasial Karim Kundi said that sharing of parliamentary experiences could help us achieving collectively, our goal of sustainable development through increased Intra-Regional Trade.
One issue which needs our special attention is the eradication of terrorism from our region. We have lost thousand of human lives in the decade long war. Pakistan and Afghanistan have suffered the most. We need a collective as well as democratic approach to face and overcome this challenge. We need to change the minds of the people to fight the menace of terrorism," he said. He said that Kashmir is a core issue of Pakistan. The representatives of Kashmir should be invited at this forum as observer, she said. Later, the participants of the conference urged for increasing intra-regional trade, investment, sustaining Socio-Economic development and collective effort for eliminating terrorism for peace and saleability of the region.
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