ISLAMABAD: Secretary General of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Halil Ibrahim Akca, Wednesday stressed the need to implement its agenda and plans to achieve the shared goals and objectives of prosperity in the region.
In his welcome remarks in the 13th ECO summit, he said the summit was of prime importance as it offered a great opportunity to the ECO members to review the progress made so far and guide it in its future endeavours.
Congratulating Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on his unanimous election as Chairman, he hoped that under his able leadership, the ECO would progress further in implementing its agenda for regional prosperity and stability.
All the ten member states including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan besides a special representative from China participated in the summit. Representative of Afghanistan’s president also attended the summit.
Highlighting the potential and importance of the ECO region, he said the population of the region had reached 471 million which had witnessed 30 % growth as compared to 20 % growth of the world population during the last 15 years.
Meanwhile he said the aggregate GDP (Gross Domestic Product) had touched US$ 1795 trillion with per capita income close to US$ 4000.
He maintained that the ECO aggregate GDP growth in relation to the world witnessed upward trend as it moved from 2.1 % (in the year 2000) to 2.63 % in 2015.
