The President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Mr. A. Akaev met with the Deputy Secretaries General of the ECO

  Tehran, 21 December, 2003

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

    

          Dr. Sohrab Shahabi and Mr. Orhan Isik, Deputy Secretaries General, Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) paid a curtsey call on the President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E Mr. Askar Akaev, on December 21, during his official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran. H.E. Mr. K. Djumaliev, Vice Prime Minister, H.E. Mr. A. Aitmatov, Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. M. Sadyrkulov, Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to IR of Iran were also present during the meeting.

  

          H.E. Mr. A. Akayev mentioned that Kyrgyz Republic attaches great importance to the expansion of mutually beneficial economic cooperation among the ECO member states. In this context, he stressed the need to exercise all possible mechanisms and asked ECO Secretariat to play its due role. The Kyrgyz President further stated that level of cooperation depends on the political will of the Heads of the ECO member states, he assured his fullest cooperation for the forthcoming 8th ECO Summit to be held in Dushanbe-Tajikistan. H.E. Mr. A. Akayev also mentioned that in the next ECO Summit he will invite attention of the Heads of State of ECO members to play their role for further strengthening of mutual collaboration under the umbrella of ECO.

     

          Kyrgyz President also stated that the issues relating to regional cooperation also came under discussion during his bilateral meeting with his Iranian counterpart President H.E. Seyed Mohammad Khatami, who in turn also emphasized the importance role Iran is playing in all ECO activities. In this regard, signing of the bilateral trade preferential agreement by Iran and Kyrgyz Republic showed a good sign of cooperation between the two ECO members.

  

          Dr. Sohrab Shahabi and Mr. Orhan Isik, Deputy Secretaries General thanked the Kyrgyz President for providing them this opportunity which reflects the importance, he attaches to the ECO. Dr. Shahabi informed the Kyrgyz President on the outcome of the 14th RPC meeting recently held in Istanbul and on developments in execution of the project on interconnection of the ECO countries’ Power Grids. Mr. Isik, in turn briefed about the new development for promotion of regional trade, inter alia, informed about the progress made with regard to the ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) and ECO trans-border trade project.

  

          Stressing the importance of the development of Transport Sector linkages for the promotion of regional trade, Kyrgyz President informed that his government attaches high priority to reconstruction of the motorways from Bishkek-Almaty and Kyrgyzstan-China with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank. Kyrgyz President also mentioned that the Kyrgyz Republic was one of the initiators of the project on interconnection of the ECO regional Power Grids.

  

In conclusion, the Kyrgyz President wished the ECO Secretariat every success in its endeavours for realization of the objectives of this Organization.

          

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