Agriculture:

Agriculture sector is an important sector for all of the ECO Member States playing a key role in employment, exports, food security and catalyzing other sectors. Agriculture sector has been major economic contributor to national economies of the ECO member countries generating 23.4% of GDP and employing 42% of the economically active population in the region in 2000.

One of the objectives of the ECO, as stipulated in the Treaty of Izmir, is to enhance efforts for effective utilization of the agricultural potentials of the region. Quetta Plan of Action and the Istanbul Declaration, the long term perspectives of ECO also give due importance to ECO agricultural cooperation. In line with these guidelines, ECO Secretariat has initiated several activities in this field and has mainly focused on food security and agricultural development issues.

The First ECO Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture held in Islamabad on 23-25 July 2002 provided guidelines for some key issues such as drought, adverse terms of trade in agriculture and low agricultural productivity with particular emphasis on the lack of awareness about quality of products, post-harvest handling, storage, processing, market needs and operations, and problems associated with the pace of transformation.

The Directorate of Agriculture, Industry & Tourism in line with the guidelines of the Ministerial Meeting in the field of agriculture is initiating, realizing activities in following areas:

1.   Food Security

2.   Drought Management

3.   Water Management

4.   Prevention of crop losses at post-harvest stages

5.   Agro-Trade

6.   Livestock Production and Diseases

7.   Enhancing Productivity

8.   Plant Protection

9.   WTO Agreement on Agriculture

10. Food Safety Regulations - Sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues

ECO Secretariat has institutional relationship with FAO, ICARDA and other international and regional organizations. Especially FAO is a main contributor to several ECO events and activities in the field of agriculture.

Industry:

Industry sector is of high importance for the economies of ECO member states.  ECO member states have common interests and problems in the region.  Increasing productivity, enhancement of capacity in their relevant institutions, development of economic infrastructures, and promotion of industrial trade are among the problems member states are facing within their industrial sector. In order to solve these problems, member states need to establish an institutional working relationship at national as well as international and regional levels.

The combined GDP of the ECO countries amounted to US$ 638 billion in 2004. This made up only 1.5 percent of the world GDP whereas combined share of industry sector to total value added except Afghanistan and Azerbaijan is more than 20 percent. However economic recovery achieved by the ECO countries as a group accelerated significantly in 2004. Rate of recovery was around 22 percent as compared 2003.

Organizing the 1^st ECO Ministerial Meeting on Industry was a turning point in the ECO cooperation in the field of industry. The Ministerial Meetings outlined the framework of regional cooperation and prioritized ECO activities in this field.

With reference to the Tehran Declaration approved by the Ministers, following areas were determined as priorities for ECO cooperation in the field of industry along with respective coordinator countries for each field:

• Improvement of Investment Climate and Promotion of intra regional Investments (Islamic Republic of Iran)

• Private Sector Development and Privatization (Republic of Turkey)

• Development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (Republic of Turkey and Islamic Republic of Iran)

• Technology Transfer and Management (Islamic Republic of Iran and Islamic Republic of Pakistan)

• Intellectual property rights related to industry (patents, trade marks, traditional knowledge, industrial designs and geographical signs etc) (Republic of Turkey and Kyrgyz Republic)

• Human Resource Development and Technical Cooperation (Islamic Republic of Pakistan)

• Standardization, Conformity Assessment and Accreditation (Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey)

During the 2^nd Ministerial Meeting held on November 2005 in Istanbul, the Ministers Welcomed the project proposals by the member countries in the fields of petrochemicals, textile, minerals and chemical industries etc.  and invite private sector for their  active involvement in such projects.

The Statute of ECO Regional Institute for Standardization, Conformity Assessment, Accreditation and Metrology (RISCAM) have been prepared. Cooperation Strategy for Standardization and related fields and Plans of Action on  Industrial Property Rights, ECO Transfer of Technology Center (ETT-Center) and SME Cooperation were also prepared.

Tourism