The 29th Meeting of the Regional Planning Council (RPC) has been started on 17 December 2018, in Tehran. The delegates from all the ten Member States, Turkish Cypriot State and the ECO Specialized Agencies, Regional Institutions and Affiliated Bodies attended the opening ceremony of the meeting.
In the opening ceremony, Secretary General delivered a welcoming statement. He highlighted the significance RPC for the organization and emphasized the broad objectives set forth especially in the ECO Vision 2025, for the region. In this regard, he stated that the ECO Secretariat has already started its efforts for transforming itself from a document-centric organization to a project-oriented one and particularly underlined the significance of the ECO`s projects and programs to achieve the noble objectives that ECO was established for. He laid particular stress on the implementation of the ECO Trade Agreement, a preferential trading arrangement which aims to increase regional trade by reducing tariffs.
As per the ECO rules and procedures, Head of delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan (being the current COM Chairman) H.E. Mr. Emomzoda Nematullo was elected as the Chairman. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of RPC for making programs and adopting calendar of events that will determine the main programs and activities of the organization in the coming year. While taking the floor, the representatives of the member states reaffirmed their commitments to the cause of ECO. And the ECO Specialized Agencies, Regional Institutions and Affiliated Bodies updated the meeting regarding their activities and achievements since the last RPC.
The RPC meeting will continue its work until 20 December 2018. It is the one of the most important decision making body of the ECO, regarded as the planning arm of the Council of Ministers, and is entrusted with the task of discussing and recommending the future activities of the organization. In so doing, the RPC also reviews the past programmes of the Organization and evaluate their success as well as shortcomings.
