Statement by the President of at the 11th ECO Summit at Istanbul, 23 December 2010

Your Excellency Mr. Abdullah Gul,

President of the Republic of Turkey,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to join you all at the 11^th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization. 

I wish to convey to you warm greetings from the people of Pakistan.

I am grateful to the Government of the Republic of Turkey for the warm reception and generous hospitality extended to us in this beautiful and historic city.

Istanbul symbolizes our rich and common cultural heritage.

On behalf of the Pakistan delegation, and on my own behalf, I wish to congratulate my brother His Excellency President Abdullah Gul on assuming the chairmanship of the Summit.

I am confident that under his able guidance, this meeting will be a landmark success.

I wish also to convey our deep appreciation to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for his able stewardship of the ECO, since the 10^th Summit in Tehran.

Excellencies,

Pakistan remains deeply committed to the aims and objectives of ECO.  ECO brings us together to renew our partnership for comprehensive regional development and prosperity.

Our region is blessed with enormous resources.

We have vast human capital.

We have huge natural resources including hydro-carbons, minerals, agriculture and technology.

ECO represents our best hope to promote trade and economic linkages in our region.

With a shared sense of destiny, we must pool resources to harness the potential of the Asian century.

We have the capacity to collectively address our needs and be masters of our own destiny.

Excellencies,

Since its establishment, ECO has matured and progressed.

Vision 2015 developed five years ago, is a pragmatic roadmap. 

Since then, we have achieved a lot.

However, we still have a long way to go to exploit the true potential of our region.

Trans-regional development and economic integration is our core objective.

We need to fully operationalize the functional mechanisms of ECO. 

This includes, placing ECO Trade Agreement on Fast Track.  Pakistan has already signed and ratified ECOTA.  We have recently agreed with Turkey to operationalize this Agreement, bilaterally.

We encourage other members, who have not yet done so, to become parties to this Agreement.

Free trade is central to regional economic integration.

ECO Trade and Development Bank needs to be turned into a vibrant financial institution and a vehicle for project development.

We need to work together to protect our economies from the volatility of international markets and the protectionist and discriminatory policies.

In this context, our Central Banks and Planning Commissions have a central role.

We need to harmonize Standards including customs.

Excellencies,

Infrastructure and energy connectivity in our region should be one of our key goals.

Trade is possible only if we have infrastructure linkages and integrated border arrangements for trade facilitation.

One of the major achievements of ECO is the enforcement of the Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA).

Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul train service and ECO Truck Caravan are commendable successes.

Pakistan is well positioned to provide trade and communication corridors through our territory and ports to our friends and partners.

We are ready to provide energy transport bridge and develop win-win scenarios.

Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and TAPI gas pipeline projects should be seen in this context.

Development is our strategic priority.

Excellencies,

Afghanistan is an important country in the region.

We have a shared responsibility towards Afghanistan.

Pakistan is committed to working closely with the ECO member countries and the international community for stability, peace and development in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been in the forefront of ECO’s efforts for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Before concluding, I wish to make the following suggestions:

1.     To realize the dream of creating an ECO Free Trade Area all members may operationalize ECO Trade Agreement.

2.     Infrastructure and energy connectivity should be our strategic priority.

3.     We may identify joint projects for trans-regional development.

4.     The Heads of our Central Banks and Planning Departments may meet and suggest measures to protect our economies from global economic recession and volatility of international markets by suggesting innovative solutions.

5.     We may attach priority attention to people-to-people contacts and establishing linkages between our universities, academia, think tanks and media organizations.  We may collectively project and promote our common cultural heritage.

I would like to reiterate Pakistan’s commitment to the goals and objectives of the ECO.  We wish every success to our brotherly country, Turkey, as the new Chairman.

Thank you.