Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan has emphasised on taking full advantage of geographical location, economic assets and political relationships among member states of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) for achieving the common goals and priorities.

In his opening remarks at the 14th ECO summit held virtually on Thursday, the Prime Minister said that regional connectivity and integration have proven essential for growth and development.

He invited the world to tap the enormous economic opportunities available in the country, saying Pakistan can be the centre-point for economic development. “We have rich resources, enterprising people, and a human workforce, with a larger potential for the future,” the Premier said.

The Prime Minister said that enhanced physical structure will generate economic activity, trade, employment, mobility and cross border exchanges. Presenting his six-point plan for securing the common objectives of the ECO countries, the Prime Minister said, “We need to recover robustly from the economic and health crises induced by the Covid-19.”

He said, “We must adopt a plan to build resilient health care systems to respond to such crises in the future.” The Prime Minister said, “We must develop an integrated transport network to facilitate both intra-ECO trade and serve as a pathway for trade between major economies of the East and the West, North and South.”

He said Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad commercial cargo train and proposed Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway links are important regional connectivity projects. In addition, linking CPEC with Afghanistan and beyond is vital.

The Prime Minister said, “We must implement the cross border projects already agreed under the ECO members, including TAPI gas pipeline and the CASA-1000, establishing an ECO investment agency and organising an annual ECO investment fair.” He said that trade among ECO member states, which is just eight percent of their total trade, could be expanded ten-fold.

He said, “To remain competitive, we must promote knowledge-based economies, which need enhanced research and development and focus on rapid digitalisation.”

He lauded Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current chair, for his timely initiative amidst the Covid-19 scenario. The Prime Minister said the ECO member states are severely affected by the health, economic crisis unleashed by Covid-19 pandemic with over 150 million people hit by the virus and over 2.5 million lost their lives.

Imran Khan said that Pakistan faced challenges during the pandemic; however, it adopted a people and poor-centric approach to balance saving of lives and livelihoods. He said despite the financial constraints, his government allocated an unprecedented $8 billion for the poorest and most vulnerable households through small businesses and direct handouts.

He said the rich countries injected $20 trillion to their economies to stimulate growth, however, the developing countries do not have the capacity for fiscal space.

Earlier, the Premier opened the summit in Pakistan’s capacity as the Chair of the 13th Summit, held in Islamabad in March 2017 whereas President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is chairing the 14th Summit. The theme of the Summit is “Regional Economic Cooperation in the Aftermath of Covid-19.”