The newly appointed Ambassador of Austria in Iran, Mr. Stefan Scholz visited the ECO Secretariat and met with the Secretary General of ECO, Ambassador Ibrahim Halil Akca on 16th August 2017.
The newly appointed Ambassador of Austria in Iran, Mr. Stefan Scholz visited the ECO Secretariat and met with the Secretary General of ECO, Ambassador Ibrahim Halil Akca on 16th August 2017. After exchange of pleasantries, Ambassador Scholz informed the Secretary General about his career background, including his very last post as Director for Strategic Planning for Development Cooperation at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Highlighting that the Austrian Government attaches great importance to establishing cooperative arrangements with regional organizations worldwide, he assured the Secretary General of his full support in the potential areas for cooperation, particularly energy conservation and renewable energy. As Austria poses requisite know-how and technological knowledge base, it is helping the developing world through establishing the “Energy Centers” which are linked with regional organizations.
The ECO Secretary General in return thanked Austrian Ambassador and informed him of the Secretariat’s proposal for the establishment of “ECO Clean Energy Center”, as the topic of energy conservation is of great importance to this region. The Secretariat, at the moment, needs financial assistance and is seeking a partner organization in this regard; since the initial stage will require some funding; while the running costs of the Center when it is established is envisaged to be shared by the Member States. Ambassador Akca also presented an overview about different energy related projects in the region. He further identified disaster risk reduction as another issue of vital importance for the ECO Region where assistance can be rendered to the ECO.
Ambassador Scholz thanked the Secretary General for the information and assured him of his full support in seeking contacts in the relevant agencies. He also informed that Austria will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from July to December 2018, hence ECO’s interactions with the EU and its regional programmes can be facilitated.
