President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan known as Thursday international locations members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to strengthen the cooperation potential by enhancing commerce, tourism and vitality ties and additional elevating business quantity by mechanisms established.
Addressing the sixteenth ECO summit held within the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, he thanked the host president, Shavket Mirziyoyev, who took over the time period presidency, for his hospitality and mentioned: “I hope that our summit and the consultations we will hold will be beneficial for the stability and prosperity of our countries and region.”
The ECO is a political and financial intergovernmental group based by Türkiye, Pakistan and Iran in 1985 to function a platform to debate and enhance improvement and promote commerce and funding alternatives. It at the moment has seven extra members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The summit held each two years on the stage of heads of state and authorities noticed the final group in Turkmenistan in November 2021.
Pointing to the intense challenges on the world stage, reminiscent of rising meals and vitality prices and the continued humanitarian disaster in Gaza that entered its thirty fourth day, the president emphasised the necessity for a “more transparent, fairer international economic system,” which he mentioned was wanted greater than ever.
“As Türkiye, we continue our people-oriented initiatives against these disruptions in the international economic system in the current conjuncture,” he mentioned.
“With a population of 500 million and a total income of $1.5 trillion (TL 42.7 trillion), the Economic Cooperation Organization undoubtedly has an important position in this respect. However, it is thought-provoking that the trade between the members of the organization corresponds to only $85 billion,” Erdoğan mentioned.
“I believe that this figure does not befit us. We must increase our efforts to raise our trade volume to $100 billion in the first place,” he urged.
“We must strengthen our cooperation potential from trade to energy, from transportation to the environment. We now need to put into effect the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA), which is among the strategic goals of our 2025 vision document and unfortunately has not been implemented for 20 years,” he defined.
“Making the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade and Investment Bank (ECOBANK), which we host in Istanbul, more active with the participation of all members will serve this purpose,” he added.
Furthermore, he known as the international locations to develop cooperation within the tourism and journey sector, noting these matters had been mentioned extensively on the assembly held by the tourism ministers in October.
“I would like to thank you for your support in the selection of Erzurum as the Economic Cooperation Organization Tourism Capital of 2025 at the meeting. I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to Erzurum, the crossroads of civilizations,” Erdoğan mentioned.
Recalling the vitality infrastructure investments which were achieved in recent times, particularly the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) – a key pipeline that carries pure fuel from Azerbaijan to Türkiye, the president mentioned a big contribution to the vitality provide safety was set each within the nation and area.
He additionally careworn the significance of collaboration within the clear vitality sector and mutual work within the environmental initiatives, highlighting Türkiye’s “Zero Waste” initiative pioneered by First Lady Emine Erdoğan.
“As Economic Cooperation Organization countries, we can play a greater role in this field with the steps we take together,” he mentioned.
“Remember, unity creates strength,” he careworn.
“With this motto, it would be beneficial to increase our joint investments in the development of new technologies in the field of energy and cleaner initiatives such as renewable energy and hydrogen,” the president added.
“The value of the east-west mid-Caspian corridor initiative has increased further in the face of current developments,” he additionally mentioned. “We must continue to improve the functionality of the corridor in coordination, which benefits us all.”
He additionally invited all international locations’ members to ink the Charter of the Economic Cooperation Organization Clean Energy Center signed by Türkiye, to be established in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Source: www.dailysabah.com