1. ENDORSED
the decisions taken at the Seventh and Eighth Meetings of the ECO Council of
Ministers held respectively in Tehran in April 1997 and in Almaty in May 1998;
2. UNDERLINED
the urgency to focus attention on the priority areas for cooperation and urged
the Member States to ensure their participation and implementation of projects
and programmes by, inter alia, including them in their respective national
plans and/or through bilateral and regional arrangements;
3. REITERATED
their resolve to complete the remaining necessary formalities to put ECO Trade
and Development Bank and ECO Reinsurance Company into operation in 1998, and
welcomed the readiness of Central Asian Bank and other concerned financial
institutions of ECO Member States to cooperate with these institutions;
4. URGED
the signatory Member States to expedite the procedures for the early
establishment and operationalization of other ECO institutions (ECO Air, ECO
Science Foundation, ECO Cultural Institute, ECO Educational Institute) and
called upon them to undertake the required actions regarding the ECO Shipping
Company which is already operational;
5. REEMPHASIZED
the importance of Transport and Communications Sectors and called upon the
Member States to implement the decisions taken at the Extraordinary ECO Summit
Meeting held in Ashgabat in May 1997 and the Almaty Outline Plan for
development of transport sector in the ECO region;
6. WELCOMED
the signing of the Transit Transport Framework Agreement and endorsed the
recommendations made by Ministers of Transport and Communications during their
Second Meeting in Ashgabat in March 1998;
7. WELCOMED
the readiness of Kazakhstan to annually hold international conferences on
transit-transport potential of the ECO region;
8.
NOTED the progress made by the Member Countries in linking their
telecommunications systems with the Trans-Asia-Europe Fiber Optic Cable System
(TAEFOS) and called upon them to enhance their cooperation in other areas of
telecommunication as well by expanding their telecommunications channels and
satellite links and joint production of telecommunication equipment within the
ECO region so as to make the communications more efficient in the whole
region;
9. WELCOMED
the entry into force of the Transit Trade Agreement, Agreement on
Simplification of Visa Procedures for the Businessmen of ECO Countries and the
establishment of Transit Trade Committee in Ashgabat and noted with
satisfaction their potential contribution for trade facilitation and flow of
goods within the ECO Region and invited the remaining Member States to join
these Agreements;
10.ALSO
WELCOMED the signing of MOU on Cooperation Against Smuggling and Customs
Frauds among the Member States aimed at providing and creating facilities for
achieving progress in relation to the smooth flow of goods and passenger
traffic and called upon the Member States to cooperate in order to combat
smuggling of goods, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and Customs
frauds;
11.WELCOMED
the approval by the Council of Ministers of the Resolution with regard to
Strengthening the Measures for Monitoring the International Trade in
Precursors which are used in the Illicit Manufacture of Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances;
12.ENCOURAGED
the Member Countries who have not joined yet the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) to take necessary steps to do so;
13.CALLED
UPON the Member States to consider the possibility of liberalizing their
trade regimes vis-à-vis one another with a view to increasing and expanding
intra-regional trade;
14.APPRECIATED
the 2nd ECO Trade Fair held in Bishkek in October 1997, encouraged
other Member States to hold similar trade fairs and exhibitions and called
upon them to participate in the international trade fairs to be held in ECO
Member States;
15.RECOGNIZED
the importance of the role of private sector in regional economic development,
acknowledging the important role being played by ECO Chamber of Commerce and
Industry in this regard and extended full support to the ongoing process of
structural adjustment and privatization in the Region;
16.CALLED
UPON the Member States to enhance mutual cooperation in the agricultural
and industrial sectors and recommended to them and ECO Secretariat to
formulate specific proposals/projects in this regard which may be implemented
both through joint efforts and/or assistance of, inter alia, FAO and UNIDO;
17.EXPRESSED
their appreciation for introduction of changes in agricultural policies and
institutional reforms in the Central Asian Member Countries and Azerbaijan for
increasing productivity and efficiency in agriculture and export of
agricultural products;
18.ALSO
STRESSED the importance of timely implementation of the decisions taken
during the Extraordinary Meeting held in Ashgabat in May 1997, welcomed the
supportive activities in this regard and agreed to consider rendering every
possible assistance for energy transit within the framework of
ECO;
19.UNDERLINED
the growing importance of the environmental issues as well as their increasing
impact on the sustainable development of the region and reiterated the need to
enhance the protection of environment in the ECO area through regional
cooperative measures;
20.WELCOMED
the decision of heads of Central Asian States on creation of International
Fund on Aral Sea Saving and recommended to ECO Member States to consider the
possibility of evolving rehabilitation projects with the financial and
technical assistance of donor countries, regional and international financial
institutions to the areas which are suffering from the ecological catastrophes
including the Aral Sea, Caspian Sea and Sarez Lake basins, the Semipalatinsk
Nuclear Test Site, nuclear waste storage and disposal and others;
21.INVITED
the relevant regional and international financial institutions and interested
countries, in line with the recent UNGA Resolutions to extend their assistance
in the implementation of the projects and programmes of ECO, particularly for
the development of transport and communications infrastructure providing the
ECO landlocked countries with greater mobility to promote intra-regional and
inter-regional trade;
22.STRESSED
that in the formulation of ECO’s programmes of regional cooperation due
attention should be paid to address the specific needs of Central Asian Member
States and Azerbaijan for the gradual transition of their economies to
market-oriented economies;
23.NOTED
with satisfaction the recent developments enhancing ECO’s cooperation with
major Regional and International Institutions within and outside the UN System
and called upon the Secretary General to continue his efforts for the
promotion of cooperation between ECO and related international fora;
24.WELCOMED
the signing of the MOU between ECO and FAO, as well as of the project document
with UNDP called upon the Member States to help implement the said agreements
and also expressed satisfaction on the recent developments between ECO, on the
one hand, and OIC and ASEAN, on the other;
25.WELCOMED
Pakistan’s initiative to host a Central Asian-South Asia Economic Summit
(CASA) in Islamabad in September 1998 in collaboration with the World Economic
Forum, providing a useful opportunity to ECO Member States’ leaders and
business community to highlight the potentials and promises of their countries
to the participants from the international business and financial community;
26.REQUESTED
ECO Member States who have already been invited to participate in the CASA
Conference at the highest possible level;
27.NOTED
with appreciation the progress made with regard to the restructuring and
reorganization of ECO Secretariat and urged the Member States to provide
necessary assistance, for the effective functioning of the Secretariat;
28.EXPRESSED
their appreciation to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for
allocating a modern building to the ECO Secretariat to enable it to function
in a more suitable working environment;
29.ACCEPTED
with thanks the offer of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to host the
Sixth ECO Summit Meeting in Bishkek in the first half of the year 2000.
