TEHRAN – The 19th meeting of ECO’s Regional Planning Council (RPC) kicked off in Tehran on Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki inaugurated the meeting, IRNA reported.
The RPC, composed of the member states’ heads of the planning organizations or such other representatives of corresponding authorities, prepares ECO programs in line with the principles and objectives of regional cooperation as laid down in the Treaty of Izmir and given in the policy guidelines and directives of the COM.
Through the 4-day event, some committees will be set up ad hoc to work on trade and investment, transport and communications, human resources and constant development, regional centers, international relations agencies, energy, mines and the environment, industry and agriculture projects, statistics and economic studies.
The participants will also discuss ECO’s specialized agencies and relations with regional and international organizations.
The plans and programs framed by RPC will be submitted to the 18th Council of Ministers (COM) for approval. The COM is expected to meet in the last week of February or in early March 2009 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an intergovernmental regional organization, was established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among the member states.
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are the ECO’s current members