The 19th Executive Committee and 13th General Assembly Meetings of ECO Chamber of Commerce & Industry hosted by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) held in Karachi. The Presidents, Vice Presidents Representatives of the member of Chambers, heads of ECO Specialised Committee as well as representatives from ECO Secretariat and ECO Trade Development Bank attend the meeting.
This session was also graced by the presence of the outgoing President ECO CCI Gholam Hossein Shafei from Islamic Republic of Iran and incoming new President Zakaria Usman from Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Rifat Hisarciklioglu, President TOBB from Turkey and Tariq Sayeed a prominent member of regional blocks of SAARC CCI and CACCI.
After the Executive Committee meeting the 13th General Assembly meeting was commenced with the ceremony of handing/taking over the charge of President of ECO CCI. The post of President of ECO CCI was conferred to Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) from Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA). Zakaria Usman being the head of Pakistan's national chamber took over the charge of President for a period of 3 years.
Zakaria Usman after taking the charge of President of ECO CCI announced that M. A. Lodhi is the Secretary-General and Dr Ayub Mehar also part of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He further stated that several important and clearly visible changes have been observed in the world political and economic scenarios. Creating a misleading image of Islam, war against terrorism, rapidly increasing poverty, surge in the number of anti-dumping cases are the phenomena of impulsive changes in the global economic environment.
Zakaria Usman said despite several years of existence of ECO regional block many trade avenues have been explored but there are still various sectors un-explored. He said Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are oil/gas producing and exporting countries while Pakistan and Turkey are oil/gas importing countries. The Central Asian countries have significant potential for hydro-electric power and can provide it to Pakistan and Afghanistan who are facing shortage of energy. Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic have large untapped hydro-power resources which can be explored and developed. Similarly, Pakistan and Kazakhstan are exporters of agricultural products like wheat, rice, fruits and vegetables while Iran and Turkey are importers of these agricultural commodities. He said ECO region can become a strong agricultural exporting block through regional co-operation in productivity enhancement.
The Immediate Past President Gholam Hossein Shafei said simplification of the trade visa issuance, creating suitable facilities for opening L/C's through banking channel collaborations and implementation of the ECOTA are the three sides of a triangle which can improve the economic situation of the region. He further said unfortunately despite the endorsement of these some important agreements and the fact that more than a decade has passed over ratification of some of them particularly ECOTA and the visa simplification are still not implemented. He emphasised on the said measures which will held in achievement of one of the strategic goals of ECO vision. He suggested that a plenipotentiary working group be formed for facilitating the implementation of the above agreements.
Rifat Hisarciklioglu said Turkey will carrying out the Presidency of G-20 in December 2014 and TOBB is planning to organise over a hundred events with in one year. The main agenda of G-20 will be how to keep stability and prosperity. He informed that a new economic bloc is being established between the US and the EU through the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). On the other end of the world, Asia-Pacific countries are coming together under Trans Pacific Economic Partnership. Meaning that the US and Asia Pacific Countries are rising the walls of the economic bloc.
He further said that in light of these tremendous transformations, ECO cannot utilise its capacity. About 3.5 billion of the total world population lives in the neighbouring countries of ECO, but the share of the ECO region from the world is just 2%. Despite having 15 percent of the oil reserves and 24 percent of the gas reserves of the world, we are not able to fully fulfil our capacity effectively and efficiently.-PR