14^th Regional Planning Council

  Istanbul, 09 December, 2003

PRESS RELEASE

            The 14^th meeting of the Regional Planning Council (RPC), recently held in the historical city of Istanbul, agreed to organize seven Ministerial meetings in 2004 in order to further deepen regional cooperation among 10 member states of ECO. The Ministerial meetings will deal with areas such as Transport, Energy, Industry, Commerce/Foreign Trade, Environment, Information Communication Technology as well as Finance and Economies.

            The Regional Planning Council is the highest institution of the Economic Cooperation Organization which has the responsibility to plan the year round activities of ECO and in view of its significance role, the member states has always paid due attention to its deliberations. Besides the seven Ministerial meetings, the Council has come up with a very extensive and useful Plan of Action involving sectoral activities, programmes and participation of the Organization in international events of relevance to regional cooperation and promotion of international understanding. The member states participated in the meeting enthusiastically and introduced very useful and productive proposals.

            The Council focused on intra-regional trade expansion, efficient and early development of transit transport and trade systems, realization of Plan of Action for Environment and overcoming food insecurity in the region. Also, it highlighted the positive and substantive contributions by ECO to promote understanding of the region by international community and their involvement in the reconstruction work in Afghanistan.

            The member states expressed their satisfaction over the growing cooperative ties of ECO with other similar agencies and UN bodies. In particular, the member states expressed their happiness over ECO’s efforts to fight drug menace in collaboration with international community and poverty through enhanced cooperation among its member states.

            The Council hoped that the priorities of ECO would find proper and suitable place in the national development strategies of each national government, building the necessary blocs so as to ensure regional prosperity and development. The Council urged the member states to ensure early realization of the agreed decisions to promote effectively intra-regional travel and participation of the private sectors in member states in the work and priorities of ECO.

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