In an interview with Radio Goftogoo, the former Deputy Secretary-General of ECO described membership in banking facility exchanges, such as FATF, as a step towards achieving ECO's business and economic goals.
Ali Akbar Farazi, Pointed that the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) held its 15th summit in Turkmenistan. Accordingly he told "Roydad" program; “The achievement of this summit can be positive requiring the senior experts and ministers work well on issues so that it can lead to positive results.”
He expressed hope that in the final statement of this year, ECO, while addressing the harmful issues of the past, may provide a solution for the future.
Farazi believes that the volume of foreign trade by ECO member countries doesn’t match the magnitude of this organization; since many potential facilities can be exploited in practice.
Also, the elimination of preferential tariffs that were started in the previous ECO-meetings should be on the agenda, and while updating, reduce the tariffs to zero within a certain period of time.
He added; “The summit is more about generalities and this is natural. But I hope that countries will take the issue of eliminating preferential tariffs among themselves seriously so that this important issue can also be considered at the summit.”
Farazi believes that if such positive trends are followed by member countries, it is likely that in the coming years the ECO will be one of the most successful international institutions in terms of trade and economic cooperation in the region.
At the same time, he reminded that our country was a pioneer member and one of the founders of ECO; “Even in some cases, Iran closed its eyes on its privileges so that other countries may benefit as well.”
In this regard, the Islamic Republic of Iran played an important role in cooperating with other countries and helping them since the beginning of the formation of ECO, and at a time when the discussion of exchanging the list of goods to eliminate preferential tariffs was discussed, the most complete list was provided by Iran while others didn’t cooperate well.”
“Therefore, it is expected that in this year's summit, a practical and executive proposal will be presented by Iran so that the list prepared by other countries can be accepted, but for this purpose, there should be a deadline for this path to reach zero.”
Regarding the implementation of this task, Farazi told Radio Goftogoo; “Provided that countries have the political will, the above measure will not face any problems in terms of implementation and economy.”
At the same time, he stressed that obstacles to the path should be discussed among the experts; while it is hoped that the leaders of the summit will resolve the obstacles with their advice and influence.
“Accordingly, we can mention the heterogeneity of member countries in their economy, membership in organizations that exchange banking facilities such as FATF, and membership in global trade organizations,” He said.
In particular, Iran has recently become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will complement Iran's trade and economic activities in the ECO.”
By Azadeh Khajeh Nasiri
