The 19th executive committee and the 13th general assembly meetings of ECO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) was held in Karachi.
The presidents and vice presidents, representatives of the member chambers, heads of ECO specialized committee as well as the representatives from ECO Secretariat and ECO Trade Development Bank attended the meeting.
This session was also graced by the presence of outgoing president ECO CCI HE Gholam Hossein Shafei from Islamic Republic of Iran and incoming new President HE Zakaria Usman from Islamic Republic of Pakistan and HE 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 presidentship of ECO CCI. The presidentship 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). HE Zakaria Usman being the head of Pakistan’s national chamber took over the charge of presidenship for a period of three years.
HE Zakaria Usman after taking the charge of presidentship of ECO CCI announced that MA Lodhi was the secretary general and Dr Ayub Mehar was also part of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He further stated that several important and clearly visible changes had been observed in the world political and economic scenarios. Creating a misleading image of Islam, war against terrorism, rapidly increasing poverty and surge in the number of anti-dumping cases are the phenomena of impulsive changes in the global economic environment.
Usman said despite the passage of several years of existence of ECO regional block, many trade avenues had been explored but there were still various sectors un-explored. He said that Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan were oil/gas producing and exporting countries while Pakistan and Turkey were oil/gas importing countries.
The central Asian countries have significant potential for hydroelectric electric power and can provide it to Pakistan and Afghanistan who were facing shortage of energy. Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic have large untapped hydropower 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 that the ECO region could become a strong agricultural exporting block through regional co-operation in productivity enhancement.
Immediate Past President HE Gholamhossein Shafi said that simplification of the trade visa issuance, creating suitable facilities for opening L/C’s through banking channel, collaborations and implementation of the ECOTA were three sides of a triangle which could improve the economic situation of the region.
He further said that despite the endorsement of these important agreements and the fact that more than a decade had passed over ratification of some of them, particularly ECOTA, and the visa simplification were still not implemented. He emphasized on the said measures which would 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.
HE Rifat Hisarciklioglu said that Turkey would carry out the presidency of G-20 in December, 2014, and TOBB was planning to organise over a 100 events with in one year. He informed that a new economic block was 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.
He further said that in light of these tremendous transformations, the ECO could not utilise its capacity. About 3.5 billion of the total world population lives in the neighboring countries of ECO, but the share of the ECO region from the world is just 2 per cent. Despite having 15 per cent of the oil reserves and 24 per cent of the gas reserves of the world, they are not able to fully fulfill their capacity effectively and efficiently.