The 16th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the ECO Trade and Development Bank was held on May 23, 2017 at Istanbul, Turkey. On invitation of the ECO Trade & Development Bank, ECO Secretary General H.E. Ambassador Halil Ibrahim Akca participated in the plenary session of the Meeting and delivered a statement.
The 16th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the ECO Trade and Development Bank was held on May 23, 2017 at Istanbul, Turkey. On invitation of the ECO Trade & Development Bank, ECO Secretary General H.E. Ambassador Halil Ibrahim Akca participated in the plenary session of the Meeting and delivered a statement.
In his statement, ECO Secretary General explained the efforts that the ECO Trade and Development Bank and ECO Secretariat have made during previous year to enhance the existing cooperation for boosting the socio-economic development of the ECO Member States and elaborated on some of the activities undertaken within the framework of this cooperation.
He pointed out that considering that nine years have elapsed since the Bank started its operations and the demand of the Member States to utilize the resources of the Bank is growing, the ECO Secretariat is of the view that now is the time to consider recapitalization of the resources of the Bank to enhance its contribution to the socio-economic development of the ECO Member States. He underlined that expanding the membership of the Bank to include all ten ECO Member States and augmentation of its resources base will pave the way to promote and consolidate ECO as a regional entity. Therefore, the remaining four ECO Member States should be encouraged to become shareholders of the Bank as well.
He informed the Meeting that ECO Council of Ministers Meeting held on February 28, 2017 in Islamabad adopted the ECO Vision 2025 and the implementation of this Vision will require significant funds. Therefore, the ECO Vision 2025 entails establishment of an “ECO Vision 2025 Fund”. The resources for this Fund will come from voluntary grants from the Member States and donors. During the 13th ECO Summit Meeting recently held in Pakistan, it was envisaged that the ECO-TDB will manage this Fund and also provide the technical services like appraisals of the feasibilities of the projects submitted.
He also deliberated upon ECO-UNIDO's joint project for Trade Capacity Building and highlighted the potential of ECO Projects in the field of transport, energy and agriculture.
