President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to visit to Baku, Azerbaijan to participate in the 12th Summit of the Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) members being held on October 15. During the visit President Zardari would hold meetings with Azerbaijan's leadership and leaders of ECO member countries on the sidelines of the Summit. The 11th ECO summit was held in Istanbul in December 2010.
The 20th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) will also be held in Baku on October 15. The meeting of Council of Ministers will account for the reports of the ECO and its institutions on the progress achieved in the main activity area of the ECO that focus among other issues, on transport, trade, energy, environment and agriculture covering the period 2011-2012.
The meeting will adopt substantial decisions on the new initiatives and activities reflected in the program planned for 2012-13. The ECO Summit being held on October will mark nearly two decades of sustainable functioning of the regional organisation, second largest in the world. A Baku Declaration outlining the vision and guidance for the organisation will be issued at the end of the summit.
The ECO is an intergovernmental organisation involving seven Asian and three Euro-Asian nations. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities and the common objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union. The ECO's secretariat and cultural department are located in Tehran, its economic bureau is in Turkey and its scientific bureau is situated in Pakistan. The organisation was founded by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan in 1985 and in 1992, the ECO was expanded to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.