No. ECO(CU)/8^th CMHSRO/2003/4

Introduction

The 8^th Consultative Meeting among Executive Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations and UNESCAP was hosted by the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the ECO Secretariat, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran from 21 to 23 July 2003. The following Executive Heads participated:  H.E. Ambassador Seyed Mojtaba Arastou, Secretary General of ECO, H.E. Mr. Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), H.E. Mr. Ong Keng Yong, Secretary General of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), H.E. Mr. Q.A.M.A. Rahim, Secretary General of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and  Dr. James Gosselin, Multilateral Trade Policy Adviser of Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Secretary General of ECO and Executive Secretary of UNESCAP alternately chaired the meeting.

Agenda item 1: Opening of the meeting

          Before the formal session, there was an inaugural session. H.E. Dr. Seyed Mohammad Hussain Adeli, Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs for Economic Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran inaugurated the meeting in the presence of all the Executive Heads of participating sub-regional organizations, Permanent Representatives of ECO Member States, Representatives of International Organizations based in Tehran, Heads of ECO Specialized Agencies and representatives of media.

          In the inaugural session all the Executive Heads and Representative of PIF made the statements in the presence of the guests.

          Secretary General of ECO welcomed the delegates and other participants of the inauguration ceremony. He said that these series of consultative meetings are very useful for all the sub-regions in Asia and Pacific and will bring different Asian regions together. Building on this theme he said all regional cooperation will ultimately facilitate global economic and social integration. In this regard he cited proposed Afro-Asian Sub Regional Organization Conference in Bandung, Indonesia on 28-30 July 2003. Pointing out the uniqueness of region, he said that it is the only region which saw emergence of six new countries within a decade. Calling ECO region rich in resources, he said that the region offer unique opportunity to become model of international cooperation.

          The Executive Secretary of UNESCAP H.E. Mr. Kim Hak-Su referred to some of the common themes between meetings he recently attended in Geneva, Doha Round and the 8^th Consultative Meeting. He also informed about recent events in the UNESCAP calendar.

          The Secretary General of ASEAN, H.E. Mr. Ong Keng Yong began by informing the audience about the history of ASEAN. He said that this consultative mechanism is useful to bring culturally, socially and economically diverse regions together.

          Secretary General of SAARC, H.E. Mr. Q.A.M.A. Rahim informed the audience that SAARC is home to most of the income poor of the world and therefore poverty alleviation was their priority area. He stated that regionalism was still relevant despite increasing focus on globalization. Ambassador Rahim appreciated the role of UNESCAP in maintaining the momentum of the consultative meetings.     

          On behalf of Pacific Islands Forum Dr. James Gosselin, Multilateral Trade Policy Adviser extended the apologies from Secretary General of PIF for not being able to attend the meeting. He began by stating that due to enormous distances between different Islands countries in the Pacific, they are fully aware of the importance of regional cooperation. He stated that PIF has established a number of viable institutions in fisheries and environment.

Agenda item 2: Adoption of the agenda

          The meeting adopted the agenda which is placed at Annex-I.

Agenda item 3: Briefing of priorities and major activities of the organizations

Briefing the participants about the priorities and major activities of SAARC, H.E. Mr. Q.A.M.A. Rahim stated that after poverty alleviation economic growth and trade were the most important areas of focus for SAARC. In the economic field, SAARC has Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) in place. In SAARC tariff has been reduced from 10% to 100% covering 5500 items and in non-tariff areas SAARC has not been that successful and is endeavoring towards a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). SAARC has also undertaken a number of steps in trade facilitation areas, like Customs Cooperation, simplification of procedures, standardization and quality control; and is working towards an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and an agreement on promotion and protection of investment. SAARC is also active in standardization and quality control of products in Member States.

          In the field of gender equality SAARC formed Prominent Women Advocacy Group, which is expected to suggest remedial measures for women uplift and in this regard SAARC is collaborating with relevant UN bodies like UNIFEM, UNICEF etc. In the field of environment, SAARC has a separate Technical Committee. It has also carried out a study on Greenhouse Effect and also worked on disaster management issues. Tourism is also an important area for SAARC. There are bodies both at senior official level as well as Ministerial level in order to make South Asia a vibrant tourist destination. Besides inter-governmental arrangement within SAARC, there is also a SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tourism Council under the private sector.

SAARC also has a Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and maintain a permanent terrorism desk in Colombo. Its job is to collect, analyze and distribute information on terrorism. SAARC is working on another additional protocol for money laundering and its links with terrorism. SAARC has a Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and maintains a monitoring desk also in Colombo. SAARC has recently agreed on two more Conventions on (a) Combating Trafficking of Women and Children and (b) Child Welfare. These are now in the process of ratification by the Member States.

Under the people-to-people contact, SAARC has a “Visa Exemption Scheme”. Under this scheme SAARC Secretariat officials do not require visas to travel to member countries. It has some other categories under this scheme like Ministers, members of Parliaments and high judiciary and some nominated individuals from the private sector of the member countries.

The Secretary-General also briefed the Meeting about SAARC regional centers. Under the SAARC umbrella, Agricultural Information Centre in Dhaka; Tuberculosis Centre in Kathmandu; Documentation Centre in New Delhi (working in scientific area and also conduct regular training courses and award Masters degree in Documentation); Meteorological Centre in Dhaka and Human Resource Development Centre in Islamabad (it conducts some training courses) are presently in operation. SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo and a SAARC Information Centre are in their preliminary stage.

PIF representative informed that his organization has 67 specialized regional organizations to deal with environment and fisheries etc. After September 11, extradition regulations in response to security challenges were added in the mandate of PIF. In 2003 PIF also discussed illegal drug production and trafficking, people smuggling and transnational crimes, global terrorism, passport related issues. In June 2003 at the request of Australia, New Zealand and Solomon Islands, an ad hoc meeting of Forum Foreign Ministers was convened, under the auspices of the Biketawa Declaration in Sydney in order to find ways to address the needs of Solomon Island to restore law and order, and ensure stability in that country.

Forum Economic Ministers agreed that the need to address economic disparities, improve opportunities, and reduce the number of people in poverty, should be the backdrop to all of their discussions. Ministers highlighted the potential of property rights, the informal sector, micro-credit schemes and development funds in providing the foundation for the eventual growth of the formal sector. The Pacific Island States are currently engaged in a process of negotiating new trading arrangements with the EU that will take effect from 2008. In the negotiations, emphasis is being placed on capacity-building and other initiatives that will contribute to poverty alleviation.

The Executive Secretary of UNESCAP, H.E. Mr. Kim Hak-Su informed that the overall purpose of the UNESCAP programme is to promote economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific with a particular focus on reducing disparities through addressing three thematic areas, namely, poverty reduction, managing globalization and addressing emerging social issues.

          The Asian and Pacific region was unique in many contrasting ways. The extremes of geography ranged from small island states to landlocked countries, from globally connected mega-cities to remote villages. The region has some of the world’s most dynamic economies, as well as some of the most stagnant. With over 3.8 billion people, Asia and the Pacific is also the most populous region in the world, containing both the largest and smallest countries. It has societies that enjoy affluence and abundance, while many struggle with deprivation, ignorance and disease.

          Poverty is the region’s greatest development challenge. Twenty-one per cent of the region’s population of 3.8 billion people live on less than one dollar a day, while 50 per cent live on less than two dollars a day. In view of UNESCAP, poverty is not only about lack of income and access to basic services. It is also about the failure to respond to the voice of the poor.

          Globalization has led to a surge in international trade, investment, tourism, economic growth, accompanied by the introduction of a rule-based international trading system and rapid technological and operational changes in transport and communications. Many countries have benefited from these developments, but others remain marginalized. Another global trend affecting the region is environmental degradation, including water and air pollution, the loss of environmental resources and sea-level rise, as well as the increasing impact of natural disasters.

New social issues have emerged in recent years. Foremost is HIV/AIDS. The region has one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the world. Equally daunting is the increased trafficking in human beings, particularly children and women. Gender inequality continues to be at the root of many economic and social disparities in the region. New approaches are required, in addition to gender mainstreaming.

UNESCAP is the most comprehensive intergovernmental body covering the countries of the Asian and Pacific region. With its convening function, it is in a strong position to promote regional approaches, consensus and cooperation. UNESCAP is well placed to take advantage of economies of scale in the development area. UNESCAP pursues its goal of reducing disparities by focusing on three key thematic areas: poverty reduction, managing globalization and tackling emerging social issues. The implementation strategy, within the framework of these themes, is to enhance national capacity to plan and implement effective policies and programmes, to improve national decision-making on regional and global issues and to incorporate emerging economic and social issues into policies and programmes. The modalities for action include advocacy and awareness-raising, policy analysis, capacity-building, including human resources development and institutional development, and sharing of good practices for wider replication. Efforts are made to balance normative and operational work to ensure effective delivery of the expected accomplishments at both the policy and programme levels.

          H.E. Mr. Ong Keng Yong informed that ASEAN has four priority areas (1) deepening economic integration (2) closing developmental gaps (3) engaging external powers and (4) modernizing institutional set up.

          ASEAN has various economic agreements, economic cooperation schemes, tariff reduction, special schemes, spread over 25 years, which tend to liberalize trade. On the other hand, ASEAN countries are now focusing on deepening and widening economic integration. The idea is that by 2020 there should be a single ASEAN market in the region of 550 million people. There are some agreement, framework on trade services but implementation is very limited. Hopefully by 2020 there would be a single ASEAN trade market. The developmental gap between first group of ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and second group like Cambodia, Myanmar, Lous, Vietnam is very wide. Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAEI) is a project for ASEAN countries to help each other. IAEI work into close cooperation with UNESCAP, ADB, World Bank and other international organizations. In future, ASEAN can work with SAARC and PIF in the field of fisheries and management too.

          ASEAN is in strategic consultation with US, China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand and EU and even Russia. ASEAN wants to engage them for dialogue and economic integration. ASEAN wants to develop dialogue partnership with all these external powers. The ASEAN Secretariat is now more proactive and facilitates integration of member countries into becoming one solid economic block.

          Ambassador Arastou informed that ECO since its inception has come a long way. Last year, it celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the expansion of ECO from 3 to 10 member states. ECO then reaffirmed its commitments that it would continue to work for i) enhancement of intra-trade within the region, ii) removal of impediments blocking Transit Trade and Transport problems, iii) increasing integration of the Landlocked Countries with global markets, iv) improvement of regional cooperation in agriculture, energy, drug control, minerals exploitation and intra-regional Tourism. With the passage of time it is getting nearer to the fulfillment of its objectives. ECO has now reached the level of cohesiveness and integration which was inconceivable some years ago.

          ECO recently convened the 13^th meeting of ECO Ministers and ever since the 12^th COM, ECO has been able to schedule more than two Ministerial meetings one on environment in December 2002 and 2^nd on Trade and Commerce on 17 July 2003. The document signed by Trade/Commerce Ministers will open a new chapter of growth in trade in ECO region. The Trade Ministers also agreed to sign soon investment promotion agreement in the ECO region.

ECO expanded cooperative relations with the United Nations, IDB, UNESCAP, UNCTAD, FAO, ASEAN, Colombo Plan, ITC, IMF, World Bank, UNODC, UNESCO, UNEP and UNFPA. Institutionalization of joint Ministerial meetings with ASEAN is just another example. Drug Control Project between the European Union, UNODC and ECO has started functioning since December 2002. The focal points in the member states are being reactivated for efficient implementation of this project. The drug control measures have become an international priority. Recently the Secretary General attended an International Conference on Drug Routes from Central Asia to Europe held on May 22, 2003 in Paris where he met the Secretary General of UNODC.

Just a few days ago Secretary General went for a short visit to Vienna, on the invitation of UNODC Executive Director Mr. Antonio Maria Costa. ECO and UNODC are discussing several mechanisms in new fields of cooperation. Secretary General called on Mr. Magarino, Director General, UNIDO. ECO is now focusing more in the field of standardization with UNIDO. He also met with Dr. Seyiid Abdulai, Director General, OPEC Fund and Mr. Dr. Alvaro Silva-Calderon, Secretary General of OPEC. Cooperation in areas of their expertise is also under discussion. ECO/UNFPA Roundtable on HIV/AIDS and Young People was arranged on June 5-7, 2003 with the participation of parliamentarians, representative of NGOs, Youth Associations from 8 ECO member states and UNFPA together with international experts.

          ECO introduced some innovative management techniques to improve efficiency and the channels of communication among the Secretariat and the member states through adoption of the UN based Documentation System as well as establishment of a data warehouse through a secured website. The entire range of official documents is just one click away.

Agenda item 4: Capacity building of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry

SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry was established in 1992. It holds annual meetings and seminars. SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry started trade fairs in 1996 and found these trade fairs very successful. The experience of SAARC Chamber of Commerce was found to be good as it materialized into meaningful cooperation between SAARC countries in promoting trade. Experience of ASEAN in this regard was different and their feeling was that when left to themselves business community could do better and find efficient ways to enhance trade. ECO’s experience in this regard is also mixed.

Agenda item 5: Trade and transport facilitations

UNESCAP organized the Ministerial Conference on Infrastructure Development in Seoul in November 2001. UNESCAP is now promoting transit trade, cross border trade. ASEAN countries are doing better in trade. Central Asian countries are keen to make improvement on this issue. The issues  include development of trade facilitation institutions, implementation of standard practices and harmonization of e-commerce, regulations and development of trade finance infrastructure, formalization of the operational facilities of transit arrangements, simplification of transit trade documents and development of ICT infrastructure. The upcoming landlocked (LDC) Transit Transport Ministerial meeting in Almaty on August 28-29 will also issue some kind of ministerial declaration in this regard.

In ASEAN zone, implementation of trade and transport facilitation measures has not been truly satisfactory, because many of the countries are quite protective in their cross border arrangements. ASEAN countries require additional knowledge on this issue. SARS epidemic hit countries and affected the tourism flow too. Many of the ideas to the ESCAP paper on trade and transport facilitations were found useful for all participants.

The Charter of ECO commits itself to encourage economic growth and cooperation among its Member States. It also highlights the importance of trade in the regional development process, based on the recognition that few countries could prosper and develop alone. In order to translate these ideals into reality, many programmes in the fields of trade & investment, transport & communications were initiated with the technical and financial support of certain donor agencies and international organization. Therefore, as envisaged under the Organization's economic cooperation strategy, ECO continued to assist the Member States to mobilize their institutional resources towards promotion of intra-regional trade. The main thrust in achieving this objective was placed on the trade promotion and facilitation activities. In the area of trade facilitation, the primary focus has remained on the drafting of a comprehensive Regional Trade Agreement, which would ensure the gradual reduction, and removal of tariff& non-tariff barriers. ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was approved and signed by the 2^nd ECO Ministerial Meeting on Commerce/Foreign Trade held in Islamabad on July 17, 2003. An important component of the Organization's trade promotion strategy consists of a joint project with ITC.

It is not possible to boost economic growth and trade activity without proper development of transport linkages across the ECO region. Interconnection of the main transport arteries of ECO member states among themselves as well as with the global transport corridors was therefore thought to be of paramount importance for the overall development of transit trade within both the regional and inter-regional context. A series of projects in the area of transit transport were consequently initiated to attain the said objectives. In order to facilitate and promote transit operations within the ECO region a Technical Grant and Assistance Agreement was signed between ECO and the Islamic Development Bank in 1999. Under the said Agreement IDB extended a grant of US $ 272,000 to conduct a study on multimodal transport operations with the help of consultants provided by UNCTAD and UNESCAP.

A significant development that has recently taken place is the opening of international passenger and cargo traffic along the main Trans Asian Railway Line i.e. Almaty- Tashkent-Turkmenabad-Tehran -Istanbul Passenger Train. A Regular Container Train along the same route has started its operations in January 2002.

In transport facilitation SAARC did not make much progress. SAARC has a Technical Committee on transportation but progress has been slow. Some port facilities are available in India and Bangladesh for cargo from Nepal, a land locked Member States. Recently, regular bus service has started from Dhaka to Kolkata. Bus service also operates between New Delhi to Lahore. There is also a regular train connection between Amritsar and Lahore, which remains suspended. 

Countries in the UNESCAP region are aware that globalization could lead to trade related economic growth. They also recognize that trade liberalization and market access must go hand in hand with access to market through the removal of non-tariff barriers and non- physical bottlenecks in trade and transport. In that context trade facilitation has emerged as one of the new issues to be discussed for inclusion in the new round of multilateral trade negotiations during the 5^th WTO ministerial meeting to be held in Cancun this year.

UNESCAP’s initiatives in transport facilitation have included the following: (1) Harmonization of legal regimes relating to land transport through the implementation of resolution 48/11, (2) Facilitation of fast turn-around time in port through simplification of documents and implementation of the FAL connection, (3) Assisting governments with development of freight forwarding and multimodal transport, including the establishment and strengthening of national freight forwarders associations, and (4) Capacity building in freights forwarding, multimodal transport and logistics including the training of trainers.

UNESCAP has further devised a strategy as trade and transport issues are inextricably linked. With this in mind, the UNESCAP secretariat has adopted a multi-disciplinary approach in developing and implementing the work programme mandated by regional member countries.

Agenda item 6: Combating illegal drug trafficking and drug abuse control

Drug abuse was found to be a serious issue in ASEAN region. ASEAN has various committees or mechanism to control this problem and has plans to make it drug free region by 2015. ASEAN is working quietly and regularly at the working group level, expert level, senior official level and Ministers level. ASEAN countries also cooperating with other regions or countries particularly with China. China-ASEAN Action Plan called on drugs is “ACCORD”. Details can be seen from the copy of the Plan. ASEAN has focused on China in joint efforts to control drug trafficking.

Drugs and Drug Trafficking is one of the priority of the ECO. It has a Plan of Action which was agreed in 1996 among the member states. Drug traffickers regularly use new route for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Iran and Pakistan and then Central Asia to Europe. ECO has a project on anti-narcotics with UNODC. Its first phase was implemented and second phase is under implementation. A full fledge Drug Control Coordination Unit is working in the ECO Secretariat with funds from European Union. It is coordinating anti-narcotics activities in ECO region. ECO is presently working with UNODC to include new topics for cooperation. In EU, France is taking the lead over the issue of trafficking in narcotics from Afghanistan to Europe. ECO submitted a report on drug routes to the ministerial meeting held in Paris in this regard and held meetings with UNODC Chief in Vienna.

SAARC anti-narcotic Convention was adopted in 1990 and became operational in September 1993. The Convention provides the regional cooperation among the member states.  SAARC also operates Drug Monitoring Desk in Colombo. Member countries share all the drug information with the desk. In the member states SAARC has drug liaison officers who feed the desk. There is also a system of meeting among the Desk and Drug Liaison Officers. They also hold seminars and trainings and also have an MOU with UNODC and has active cooperation with them in this area.

Agenda item 7: Reconstruction of Afghanistan

ECO leaders decided that it should participate in the reconstruction in Afghanistan. The first meeting in this regard was organized by UNDP in Iran in May 2002 with participation of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan. ECO Council of Ministers decided that member states should continue to help Afghanistan bilaterally. It asked ECO Secretary General to visit Afghanistan to finalize areas for assistance. As a result of this visit and discussions with Afghan Prime Minister and senior officials, ECO prepared four years Plan of Action. COM also decided to establish an ECO Fund. This is going to be implemented. Its objectives include continuation of bilateral assistance for training, utilization of Special Fund from ECO budget for the feasibility study of the projects in Afghanistan.

Agenda item 8: Energy resources in the ECO region

Energy is another priority area of ECO. Iran is a member of OPEC. Turkey is also providing a lot of technical assistance to Central Asia. ECO organized first Ministerial Meeting on Energy in Islamabad. ECO has a Plan of Action on this subject which is being implemented. This year second ministerial meeting will be held in November in Tehran. This is going to review Plan of Action and strategy specially for the pipeline route from Central Asia/Turkey to Europe. Activities in this sector is increasing. ECO member countries have bilateral agreements on energy too. ECO is cooperating with the Energy Charter and OPEC and ADB in the energy sector. Secretary General of Energy Charter visited ECO.

Agenda item 9: Strategies adopted to tackle poverty in different regions

SAARC led the discussion and informed that in 1991 the Sixth SAARC Summit decided to establish an Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation. Their report was considered in 1993. It was agreed that some actions would be taken up in accordance with the recommendations. One of their recommendations was social mobilization. SAARC has a Three-tier Mechanism on Poverty Alleviation i.e. (1) First-tier – Secretaries to the governments in the Ministries/Departments concerned with poverty eradication and social development in SAARC countries, (2) Second-tier – Finance/Planning Secretaries, and (3) Third-tier – Finance/Planning Ministers.

          The Ministerial Meeting in Islamabad (April 2002) adopted a Plan of Action on poverty alleviation. Some international organizations including World Bank appreciated that Plan of Action. World Bank has also offered SAARC to collaborate in various poverty alleviation activities, including the implementation of the Plan of Action. UNDP had earlier come forward in social mobilization programme in Member States. They had the programme in six member countries until recently.

          UNESCAP highlighted micro-financing which proved to be very successful in Bangladesh.  The UN Conference on Financing for Development highlighted the need to reduce poverty by 2015, in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals.  UNESCAP was also looking into other areas for resource mobilization.

In ASEAN most of the poverty eradication programmes come under Rural Development and ASEAN has a group of senior officials who meets regularly on this issue. ASEAN’s Rural Development Programme is geared towards self reliance and getting the people to learn how to earn. In many ASEAN countries rural communities are more dependent on government projects. ASEAN’s challenge is to wean people away from such subsides and make them self reliant.

ECO region’s total population was 398.8 million. ECO expects the reduction in the regional population growth of 2.21 to 1.6%. The Secretary General submitted a report to the 5^th meeting of Population and Development, which was held in Bangkok. In this report it was stated that poverty was increasing in the ECO region in the year 1998-2000 because of population growth in the region. ECO is trying to have a plan of action for controlling population increase by 2020. Poverty in ECO region also increased because of some conflicts in the region particularly in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Agenda item 10: Date, venue and provisional agenda for the 9^th Consultative Meeting

          The Meeting agreed that the Ninth Consultative Meeting would be hosted by the UNESCAP in Shanghai, Republic of China on April 29, 2004. The provisional agenda for the meeting will be prepared later in consultations with all the sub-regional organizations.

Agenda item 11: Other matters

          No other matter was discussed in the meeting.

Agenda item 12: Adoption of the summary of discussions

The Meeting agreed that the ECO Secretariat would prepare the draft summary record of the meeting, in consultation with UNESCAP, and seek ad-referendum approval from all the participating organizations.

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