December 01, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 9, 1427

LAHORE, Nov 30: The 3rd ECO Ministerial Meeting on Industry underlined on Thursday the importance of enhancing cooperation among member states at bilateral and multilateral levels for efficient interaction and exchange of knowledge and experience and resolve to consider developing conducive environment and appropriate mechanisms.The Lahore Declaration adopted by the meeting also emphasised the “compelling need” for industrial cooperation for their economic development, saying it firmly believed that the “ECO Regional Strategy on Industrial Cooperation” would contribute to their prosperity and development.

It approved the strategy and requested that necessary consideration be paid for developing favourable environment for its implementation.

The declaration was adopted while keeping the importance of industry in the economic and social development of the ECO region and strong desire of member states for attaining greater share of global industrial markets in order to cope with the challenges of global competition.

It emphasised the critical role of trade and transport related ECO projects/programmes in the industrial cooperation and noted the recent progress for signing/ratification of the ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) and implementation of the ECO Transit Trade Framework Agreement (TTFA).

It also considered the increasing need for investment and financing the ECO industrial projects/programmes and appreciated the progress in making the ECO Trade and Development Bank operational next year.

The meeting, which considered the Draft Statute of Regional Institute of Standardisation, Conformity Assessment, Accreditation and Metrology (RISCAM), agreed that the headquarters of the central secretariat and Conformity Assessment Board would be set up in Tehran. The standardisation and Accreditation Board will be located in Turkey while the Meteorology Board in Kazakhstan.

It also decided to form a Task Force comprising Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkey with a view to working out statutes of the headquarters and central secretariat. The task force will convene a meeting in January 2007 in Turkey and complete its tasks in 17th meeting of Regional Planning Council on February 18-22, 2007 at Tehran.

The ministerial meeting also discussed the draft plan of action on establishment of ECO Technology Centre which will facilitate technical cooperation and transfer of technology including licensing among member states.

It welcomed and adopted the new proposals with regard to the plan of action on entrepreneurship and SMEs development. It also considered the inadequacy of legal framework, institutional structures and the capacity constraints, thus reviewed the prepared plan of action on IPRs and adopted it. It also appreciated the proposals in the field of privatisation and private sector development, emphasising the importance of the active participation of the private sector in intra-ECO trade and investments and resolved to facilitate and encourage the private sector including ethnic expatriate.

Earlier, Federal Industries And Production Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen reaffirmed at the inaugural session of the meeting Pakistan’s commitment to work for the development, progress and prosperity of the region by strengthening and supporting the objectives and goals of the ECO.

“Pakistan is striving hard to promote its economic links with ECO countries. However, there is still room for further intensification of these links. Likewise, Pakistan needs cooperation from other ECO states to expand its trade links.”

He said there existed tremendous opportunities for cooperation in industrial development in the ECO member countries to explore and exploit. “The first step would be to initiate a communication between industry-to-industry among the member countries and the best way of doing it is by the exchange of trade delegations.”

He said the ECO had become one of the most important zones of the world with substantial geo-political and geo-strategic resources. “I would like to underline the importance of ECO Trade and Agreement for liberalisation of trade among the member countries and abolishing non-tariff barriers. Pakistan is ready for full cooperation to enhance industrial development and competitiveness of the region.”

ECO Secretary General Khurshid Anwar said the ECO members needed to intensify industrial cooperation to meet the challenges of the global market and sharpen their competitive edge. “We must develop a common business culture. The involvement of private sector cannot be over-emphasised. We need to raise the volume of intra-ECO trade and investment.”