The Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) member states should ensure regional integration through preferential tariffs, establish efficient common institutions and finalise an effective transport strategy, a business leader said Sunday.
The ECO members are reluctant to introduce meaningful tariff cuts and agree on the function of common institutions resulting in disappointing outcome as compared to the other regional blocks like the EU, ASEAN and GCC which were preferring trade over politics, said Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt.
The ECO has remained one of the least integrated region depriving seven per cent of the global population of the opportunities they deserve, he said, adding that the ECO with seven landlocked countries remained far from prosperity due to political considerations, misgivings, armed conflicts, poor infrastructure and inadequate communications network.
With combined population of 436 million with shared cultural and historic affinities, combined growth rate of 5 per cent and GDP at $1.9 trillion the intra-regional trade remains at dismal 7 per cent, he observed. A regional trade corridor linking Islamabad, Tehran and Istanbul will boost regional trade and bring EU closer to the region. Similarly, Pakistan-Iran-Turkmenistan and Pakistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan trade corridors proposed by Pakistan would link up non-coastal countries with the rest of the world.
