Meeting to gauge potential of sea ports postponed

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The meeting of Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) that was scheduled to be held from September 14-16 in Karachi has been postponed due to engagements of Iran. Secretary Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI)Mahar Alam when contacted, confirmed the information and said that due to the engagements of Iran, a member country of ECO, the meeting has now been rescheduled in November this year. He said the meeting regarding the initiating of a study to gauge potential of six sea ports of Pakistan, Iran and Turkey will now be held from November 19-21 this year. Earlier, the secretariat of ECO sought Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Pakistan for carrying out not only a study on six ports of Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran, but also establishing ECO Zones in the said ports. ECO Acting Secretary General Maher Alam Khan wrote a letter No. FPCCI/ECOCCI/2011-2295, dated June 10, 2011, to the Secretary Ministry of Ports & Shipping Pakistan, Muhammad Salim Khan, with regard to holding of a meeting for increasing cooperation among ECO member countries. The letter stated that the ECO is seriously considering carrying out a study of the six sea ports of member countries in order to specify their logistic capacities that can provide facilities to landlocked countries of the ECO region. The ports that have been selected for the study include Trabzon and Mersin from Turkey, Bandar-Abbas and Chahbahar from Iran and Gwadar and Port Muhammad bin Qasim from Pakistan. In addition, a decision with regard to the provision of land, free of charge and in exchange for ECO Zones, near all the selected ports by relevant ECO countries would also be taken in the meeting, the letter added. The meeting will be hosted by FPCCI.

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