The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is a Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organisation under the United Nations Charter. The objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ECO expanded to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in 1992.

The current framework of the ECO expresses itself mostly in the form of bilateral agreements and arbitration mechanisms between individual and fully sovereign member states. That makes the ECO similar to ASEAN in that it is an organisation that has its own offices and bureaucracy for implementation of trade amongst sovereign member states. This consists of the historically integrated agricultural region of the Ferghana Valley which allows for trade and common agricultural production in the border region between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has free trade agreements with both Afghanistan and Iran which are in the process of implementation.

In 2017, a free trade agreement between Turkey and Iran was proposed to be signed in the future, in addition to a proposed Pakistan-Turkey Free Trade Agreement. The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement is designed to facilitate trade for goods and services for Central Asia via both Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is in addition to the Ashgabat Agreement, which is a multi-modal transport agreement between the Central Asian states. Further cooperation amongst members is planned in the form of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline, as well as a Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan pipeline. Current pipelines include the Tabriz–Ankara pipeline in addition to the planned Persian Pipeline. This is in addition to the transportation of oil and gas from Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to supply the industrialisation underway in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and beyond. Pakistan plans to diversify its source of oil and gas supplies towards the Central Asian states, including petroleum import contracts with Azerbaijan.

The ECO's Secretariat and ECO Cultural Institute are based in Iran, ECO Trade and Development Bank and ECO Educational Institute are located in Turkey, and ECO Science Foundation is in Pakistan.

History

The Economic Cooperation Organization was the successor organisation of what was the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD), founded in 1964, which ended activities in 1979. In 1985 Iran, Pakistan and Turkey joined to form the ECO. By the fall of 1992, the ECO expanded to include seven new members; Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The date of the expansion to its present strength, 28 November, is referred to as "ECO Day". The status and power of the ECO is growing. However, the organisation faces many challenges. Most importantly, the member states are lacking appropriate infrastructure and institutions which the Organization is primarily seeking to develop, to make full use of the available resources in the region and provide sustainable development for the member nations. The Economic Cooperation Organisation Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was signed on 17 July 2003 in Islamabad. ECO Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) is a new organization for trade promotion among member states located in Iran (2009). Under the agreement reached between ECO members, the common trade market should be established by 2015.

! Population<br />density

! GDP<br /><small>(2023, nominal,<br />US$ billions)</small>

! GDP per capita<br /><small>(2023, nominal, US$)</small>

  • Organization of Turkic States || || Islamabad

|-

|align=center|14th ||4 March 2021 || || Ankara

|-

|align=center|15th || 28 November 2021 || || Ashgabat

|-

|align=center|16th

|89 November 2023

|

|Tashkent

|-

|align=center|17th

|34 July 2025

|

|Khankendi

|-

|align=center|18th

|2027

|

|TBA

|}

List of general secretaries

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! No. !! Name !! Nationality !! Period

|-

|align=center| 1

| Alireza Salari

|

| August 1988 July 1992

|-

|align=center| 2

| Shamshad Ahmad

|

| August 1992 July 1996

|-

|align=center| 3

|

|

| August 1996 July 2000

|-

|align=center| 4

|

|

| August 2000 July 2002

|-

|align=center| 5

| Seyed Mojtaba Arastou

|

| August 2002 July 2003

|-

|align=center| 6

| Bekzhassar Narbayev

|

| August 2003 January 2004

|-

|align=center| 7

| Askhat Orazbay

|

| February 2004 July 2006

|-

|align=center| 8

| Khurshid Anwar

|

| August 2006 July 2009

|-

|align=center| 9

| Yahya Maroofi

|

| August 2009 July 2012

|-

|align=center| 10

| Shamil Alaskerov

|

| August 2012 July 2015

|-

|align=center| 11

| Halil Ibrahim Akca

|

| August 2015 July 2018

|-

|align=center| 12

| Hadi Soleimanpour

|

| August 20182021

|-

|align=center| 13

| Khusrav Noziri

|

| August 20212024

|-

|align=center| 14

| Asad Majeed Khan

|

| August 2024

|-

!colspan="2"|source

!colspan="2"|ECO Secretaries General

|}

Regional Institutions & Agencies

thumb|Azerbaijani stamp celebrating the 10th ECO summit in Azerbaijan.

ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry

ECO-CCI was established on 10 June 1993. Its objectives are to contribute to enhancing economic cooperation and relations in trade, industry, agriculture, tourism, contracting, engineering and banking sectors as well as to realize joint investments among the Member States. National Chambers of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey are members of ECO-CCI.

The 7th General Assembly Meeting of ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECO-CCI), held on 20 April 2004 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The participating member states offered some proposals for developing new mechanism and modalities for better interaction between member chambers and to re-activate ECO-CCI.

ECO Reinsurance Company

In March 1995, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey agreed to establish ECO Reinsurance Company. The purpose is to supplement the existing reinsurance services in the region, promote the growth of the national underwriting and retention capacities, minimize the outflow of foreign exchange from the region and to support economic development in the region. The three-member countries decided to form a Trilateral Interim Committee to pave the way for the establishment of this important institution. The Trilateral Interim Committee in its various meetings reviewed the relevant issues such as the development of the business plan and signing of the Articles of Agreement already finalized by a group of Experts from the three founding member countries.

ECO Consultancy & Engineering Company

Governments of all the ECO Member States has established a central resource pool in the shape of ECO Consultancy and Engineering Company (Pvt.) Ltd., or ECO-CEC, to assist in the development projects sponsored by the ECO Member States or by its Trade and Development Bank. The founder States are the Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Republic of Turkey which holds an equal share in ECO-CEC, Turkey being represented by two companies and Iran and Pakistan, by one each.

The Iranian and Turkish Companies specialize mainly in oil and gas pipelines, refineries, petrochemical and industrial engineering, while the Pakistani partner in all other fields of development engineering, including communications, power, urban development public health, telecommunications, water resources development and agriculture. ECO-CEC provides its expertise in the entire range of consultancy operations, starting from conception, project planning and appraisal, through pre-feasibility, feasibility and financial studies, investigation and exploration, site selection to engineering design, material and equipment specifications, construction supervision, contract management, quality control and preparation of technical manuals for the operation and maintenance of the projects.

ECO Trade and Development Bank

The Economic Cooperation Organization Trade and Development Bank (ETDB) was established in August 2005, following the ratification of its Articles of Agreement signed in March 1995 by the three founding members of ECO, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Republic of Turkey. The ETDB became fully operational in November 2008, and was joined by Afghanistan in 2012, Azerbaijan in 2013, and the Kyrgyz Republic in 2015.

Its headquarters are in Istanbul (Turkey), and representative offices are in Karachi (Pakistan) and Tehran (Iran). The primary objective of the Bank is to provide financial resources for projects and programmes in member countries. The Bank offers a range of medium-to-long-term products, i.e., project finance, corporate finance, trade finance, and loans to support small and medium-sized enterprises directly or through financial intermediaries to private and state-owned entities.

As of 2023, the paid-in capital of the ETDB stood at SDR 326,750 thousand, while its authorised capital was of SDR 1,089,100 thousand.

ECO Cultural Institute (ECI)

<!-- Commented out because image was deleted: thumb|150px|Logo of the ECI -->

ECO Cultural Institute (ECI) is affiliated with ECO and aims at fostering understanding and the preservation of the rich cultural heritage of its members through common projects in the field of the media, literature, art, philosophy, sport and education.

Others

Source:

  • ECO Clean Energy Centre (CECECO)
  • ECO College of Insurance
  • ECO Educational Institute
  • ECO Postal Staff College
  • ECO Regional Center for Risk Management of Natural Disasters
  • ECO Regional Coordination Centre for Food Security
  • ECO Regional Institute for Standardization, Conformity Assessment, Accreditation and Metrology (RISCAM)
  • ECO Science Foundation
  • ECO Seed Association (ECOSA)
  • ECO Supreme Audit Institutions

Relationship with other organizations

All the ECO states are also member-states of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), while ECO itself has observer status in the OIC since 1995.

Leaders of ECO member states

Leaders are either heads of state or heads of government, depending on which is constitutionally the chief executive of the nation's government.

<!--WARNING: Do not put successors of the current heads of states until he or she takes office. Thank you.-->

See also

  • Gül Train
  • Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
  • South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
  • Middle East economic integration
  • White card system
  • Turko-Iranian tradition
  • List of country groupings
  • List of multilateral free-trade agreements

Notes

References

  • ECO's official website
  • ECO's Cultural Institute
  • ECO's Trade and Development Bank
  • ECO's Trade promotion Unit
  • ECO's Post. .