The ECO Secretary General, H.E. Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour held a meeting with the President of ECO Trade and Development Bank H.E. Javaid Aslam along with the Vice President of ETDB and the Representative of the Branch of the Bank at Tehran, at the premises of the Secretariat, on November 11, 2018.
The Meeting, inter alia, mainly discussed the latest developments in ECO Region in the areas of finance and economy and exchanged of views on the existing positions of the remaining four, non-member ETDB, ECO Member States of becoming members of ETDB. Both sides agreed that in order to pave the way for ETDB to be more efficient in contributing to development of ECO Member States, these ECO Member States should be encouraged to join the Bank at the earliest convenience. With the same understanding, the Meeting also agreed that the capital of the Bank should be increased.
During the Meeting, the two organizations also exchanged their views and agreed on the ways and means of harmonization of their activities and promoting cooperation for implementation of Regional ECO Projects including provision financial and technical supports of the Bank for ECO Regional Projects.
The Meeting also agreed that holding an ECO Experts Group Meeting comprising of the focal points of the Member States to find out more efficient ways and means of involving the Bank and the ECO Secretariat in implementing regional projects is required.
The ETDB was established on 3 August 2005 with its headquarters located at Istanbul, Turkey and started its operations in 2008. The representative offices of the Bank at Tehran, Iran and Karachi, Pakistan are fully functional. The current shareholders are now six members of ECO, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan and Turkey. The authorized capital of the Bank is 1.089 billion SDR and total paid-in capital is 326,75 million SDR.
The ETDB 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. In this context, sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, transport and communications, which have potential impact on the development of the member states, are given special attention.
