ISLAMABAD, July 1: The federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock, Khair Mohammad Junejo, directed the participants of an inter-ministerial meeting here on Monday to make efforts to explore avenues for exporting agricultural produce to the member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

He also asked and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the Bank of Investment to immediately finalize proposals for the country’s exports to the ECO members as per their inquiries.

The minister directed the authorities to finalize the working paper and recommendations for the first ECO Agriculture Ministers Conference, which will begin in Islamabad on July 23.

He said: “Pakistan, as the leading agricultural country of ECO, is taking this big initiative to further enhance the cooperation in this sector”, and President Musharraf, in his presidential address at the ECO Summit in Tehran on June 10, 2000, had announced that his country would take that responsibility and would host the first ECO Ministers Meeting on Agriculture.

The minister said the country had received various inquiries regarding major agricultural produce and “we are actively responding to them and we hope that we will finalize some of these agreements in the forthcoming conference.”