Friday, December 24, 2010

Iraq bids to join ECO !!!

23 December 2010

Iraq bids to join ECO

Iraq has made a bid to join Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), President Abdullah Gül said on Thursday.

Leaders of ECO member states, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, gathered in İstanbul for a one-day summit meeting during which Turkey assumed the rotating term presidency from Iran. Iraq, as well as Qatar and Syria participated in the ECO summit as guest countries.

Turkish President said that all ECO member states have welcomed Iraq's bid.

“I hope Iraq will become a member,” told a press conference following the summit. ECO was co-founded by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan in 1985 in a bid to develop economic, technical and cultural cooperation between member countries. In 1992, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan joined the organization.

Gül also said that Azerbaijan applied to ECO secretariat to be a part of ECO Trade and Development Bank which he said was a major dynamo of economic activities within ECO zone. İstanbul-based bank, which was founded by Turkey, Pakistan and Iran, has a paid-in capital of $230 million.

Gül said the bank would finance an important number of projects and added that Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank had plans to be partners with ECO Bank.

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