Transport and Communications

Directorate for Transport and Communications (T&C) is the leading section within the ECO Secretariat for initiation, coordination and monitoring of the ECO projects and programmes in transport and communications. Since adoption of the ECO Vision 2025 in March 2017, the T&C Directorate is also mandated to ensure realization of the relevant expected outcomes envisaged in the Vision, particularly those under the priority 1 of the Vision i.e. Transport and Connectivity.

Since its early years of the establishment, transport and connectivity has been on the top of the ECO agenda. The ECO Ministers of Transport in their first meeting in Almaty on 25-27 October 1993 adopted the Almaty Outline Plan for the Development of Transport Sector in the ECO Region. Tejen-Mashhad-Serakhs railway operation on 13 May 1996 opened the railway traffic on the northern line of the Trans-Asian Railway of “East-West” Transport Corridor as well as on “North-South” Transport Corridor connecting also the Central Asian Republics to the ports of the Persian Gulf and enhanced railway and road traffic along the “Europe-Caucasus-Asia Transport Corridor” (TRACECA).

The Extraordinary ECO Summit Meeting held in Ashgabat on 13-14 March 1997 endorsed the importance of “Programme of Action for ECO Decade of Transport and Communications”. Since signing the ECO Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA) in 1998 and its entering into force, ECO transport profile has been expanding building on Region’s huge transport and transit potential. Ever since, the Transit Transport Co-ordination Council (TTCC) has been be responsible for achievement of the aims of the TTFA through monitoring, implementing and coordinating matters related to transit transport among the Contracting Parties. Ministers of Transport of the Member States in their regular meetings have also framed the policy direction for ECO in transport and transit.

The Directorate is also engaged in ECO ICT-related activities. The very last Directorate initiative is a study jointly conducted with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)on the ICT needs and requirements of the ECO Member states and ECO Region. The ECO Ministerial Meeting on ICT is the highest decision making body in the area of regional cooperation on ICT.

In advancing its mandates, the Directorate is engaged in different partnerships with relevant development/financing partners from within and outside ECO Region.

Director and Staff

Mr. Akbar Khodaei (Iranian national)
Director for Transport & Communications
Tel: (+9821)22831733-34
Email: Khodaei@eco.int

Mr. Uktam Shomurotov (Uzbek national)
Programme Officer
Tel: (+9821)22831733-34
Email: shomurotov@eco.int

Mr. Zeinolla Kalymbetov (Kazakh national)
Programme Officer
Tel: (+9821)22831733-34
Email: zeinolla@eco.int

Mr. Bayram Aganyyazov (Turkmenistan national)
Programme Officer
Tel: (+9821)22831733-34
Email: aganyyazov@eco.int 

Mr. Javed Ali (Pakistani national)
Desk Officer
Tel: (+9821)22831733-34
Email: javed@eco.int

ECO/UNECE/lsDB GIS Project

A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for
managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system to also include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.