7th Consultative Meeting for Economic & Trade Cooperation between the OIC Affiliated Organs

ECO-SG Report

Jeddah, March 1, 2004
 

Secretary General of ECO, H.E. Mr. Askhat Orazbay participated in the 7th Consultative Meeting for Economic & Trade Cooperation between the OIC Affiliated Organs including Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (COMCEC), Islamic Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Islamic Center for Development of Trade (ICDT), Islamic University of Technology on March 1, 2004 in Jeddah (Annex-A: Programme of the meeting). The meeting was attended by the heads of OIC organs, Permanent Representatives and Consuls General of OIC member states in Jeddah. A list of participants in the meeting is placed at Annex-B.

 

2.         During the meeting, after making brief introduction of ECO, the Secretary General said that ECO region has become the focus of world attention both because of situation in Afghanistan and also because of emergence of new states; unfortunately all of which are land locked but at the same time endowed with great international trade potential.

 

3.         He said that IDB had been ECO’s true friend as it has supported a long list of small and medium sized projects and now is involved with ECO in its major projects. He mentioned project on feasibility study on “Interconnection of Power Systems” of ECO Member States as well as Multimodal transport operations. He thanked IDB for its support (Annex-C: Agenda of the meeting).

 

4.         During the discussion on agenda item 1: the Supplementary Mechanism for Implementation of the OIC Plan (Annex-D) the Secretary General said that ECO has analyzed the supplementary mechanism and noticed that a bigger role had been given to International Organization in the implementation of IDB’s plan of action which is in harmony with current international trend. He stated that despite the fact that ECO was not OIC institution but it was ready to play a role in the process through sharing its experiences and expertise in all the sectors, within its area of operations.

 

5.         Speaking on the agenda item No. 2: First Round of Trade Negotiations of the Framework Agreement on Trade Preferential Systems Among the OIC Member States which was of greater interest to ECO, the Secretary General explained experience of ECO Trade Agreement-ECOTA. He said that ECOTA was signed during the 2nd Ministerial Meeting on Commerce and Foreign Trade in July 2003 in Islamabad. He also explained its objective to promote intra-trade in ECO region, leading to free trade in the region and finally greater access to the international market. He said that ECO’s strategy had been two track in this regard: i) Removal of tariff and non–tariff barriers in the region thus providing regulatory and enabling environment for trade (top down activity from governmental  to business sector; and, ii) increasing the interaction of private sector in various product groups potentially important in the region.  He informed the meeting that ECOTA was comprehensive in terms of commodity coverage and would be implemented within eight years period and was likely to scale down tariffs to a maximum of 15% on 80% of the traded goods. A Brief Note on the launching of the First Round of Trade Negotiations is placed at Annex-E.

 

6.         He also informed the meeting about other related matters and 1st meeting of High Level Experts Group (HLEG) on Trade, Investment which was held in Ankara on January 13-14 2004. This meeting agreed to bring the issue of adopting fast track approach. The Group also envisaged the reduction of tariffs to a maximum of 10% as the highest tariff slab, within a period of 5 years. This meeting agreed to have an Experts Meeting for preparation of “ECO Rules of Origin” which is going to take place in March 8, this year in Islamabad. The Secretary General stated that ECO is also expected to benefit from Trade Preferential System among OIC member states (TPS-OIC) for preparation of the ECO Rules of Origin.

 

7.         He told the participants that ECO will actively participate and contribute to First Round of Negotiations Towards the Establishment of TPS-OIC to be convened on April 6-9, 2004, in Antalya, Turkey. He invited IDB, COMCEC Coordination Office and the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) to the future meetings of the HLEG on the implementation of ECOTA and other related events.

 

8.         The Secretary General also said that ECO would disseminate information on the ECO Member States’ trade issues (e.g. trade values, trade figures on the major commodities actually traded by the Member States, trade regime, rules and regulations in the ECO region) through ECO Trade-Net as soon as it would be ready.      

 

9.         Speaking during the Conference Mr. Ahmet Tiktik, Vice Minister of the Republic of Turkey and Coordinator for COMCEC informed the meeting that in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of COMCEC, the Republic of Turkey is organizing the First Islamic Economic Summit in November 2004. He invited all COMCEC members to participate in the Summit. The meeting endorsed the proposal of the Republic of Turkey. After the meeting Mr. Tiktik requested the ECO Secretary General to actively participate in the aforesaid meeting as it would be about economic issues of all the ECO Member States which are also members of the OIC.

 

10.       A copy of the message by H.E. the Secretary General of OIC at the opening of the Consultative Meeting is placed at Annex-F.

 

11.       After the meeting the Secretary General called on the President of the Islamic Development Bank, H.E. Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali and briefed him on the status of relationship between the two organizations. He thanked the President for his support to all the ECO projects that were forwarded to the bank particularly the project of feasibility study of interconnection of power system of ECO member states.

 

12.       The President of the IDB appreciated the participation of the Secretary General in the event and reaffirmed his support to ECO projects.  He informed the Secretary General that he would forward to ECO the list of Focal Points in the Bank responsible for all ECO projects and suggested that the ECO Directing Staff might remain in contact with them in order to bring efficiency in materialization of financial support to different ECO projects. The Secretary General told the President that he would specifically instruct the ECO Directing Staff on this issue.

 

13.       On the sidelines of the 7th Consultative Meeting, the Secretary General met with the Secretary General of Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) H.E. Mr. Aqeel A. Al-Jassem. The Secretary General of ICCI was enthusiastic to have some sort of working relationship with ECO and suggested to sign a MoU between the two organizations. The ECO Secretary General requested the Secretary General of ICCI to send a standard format of this draft MoU to ECO Secretariat for consideration.

 

14.       The Secretary General also called on H.E. Allal Rachdi, Director General of Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT). The Director General informed the Secretary General that they were organizing a Conference on Trade and explained to him the objectives of the conference. The Secretary General informed him about the seminar of the Focal Points for Intra-Trade Net which will be organized by ECO and suggested technical cooperation between ICDT and ECO on this matter.

 

15.       The Secretary General left Jeddah for Tehran on March 2, 2004.

  

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