ECO: through regional corridors to global markets
The 19th meeting of the General Assembly of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) was held virtually on Tuesday, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCIMA) portal reports.
The event was attended by the heads of chambers of commerce of the ECO member countries. Speaking at this online meeting, ICCIMA President Gholam-Hossein Shafei said: "ECO Chambers need to adapt their business models to existing risks and reduce the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the regional economy through the development of e-commerce and acceleration on regional agreements."
Noting that the ECO region is located at the intersection of the east-west and north-south trade routes, the official drew the attention of colleagues to such important corridors as Kyrgyzstan-Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Iran and Bandar Abbas-Ashgabat-Almaty, which connect global markets from the Far East to Europe and from Russia to the Indian subcontinent.
Shafei emphasized that the ECO region, with its large population and rich economic potential, should have a large share in the global economy.
"Statistics show that the organization's trade with the world is about $710 billion, of which only 7.8% is intra-regional trade," he said.
According to him, foreign direct investment (FDI) in member countries, according to the latest available statistics, is only 1.7% of total FDI in the world, which is very low and far from the expectations and economic potential of the region.
In this aspect, it was considered the need to stimulate small and medium-sized industries in the ECO member countries and the widespread introduction of solutions for e-commerce.
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