PMO: ECO members can create multinational companies

The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member states can set up joint multinational companies, said the deputy head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) for port affairs.

“We can use up to 50 million tons of the [loading and unloading] capacity of Iranian ports for handling oil and non-oil cargos of neighboring countries,” added Mohammad Ali Hassanzadeh in an address to the opening ceremony of the Heads of Reference of Marine Organizations (HRMO) of ECO Member States in Tehran on Wednesday, Fars News Agency reported.

He described greater attention to the issues transit and transportation exclusively in the ECO adopting a development-oriented approach as very necessary and fundamental. Turning to the commonalities among ECO member states, Hassanzadeh said having 10 member countries with an overall population of 460 million as well as religious, social, historical and civilizational commonalities, the organization has numerous capabilities and enormous potential for promoting all-out development and achieving a unique status in the region and the world.

Huge energy resources as well as diverse mineral reserves and raw materials of some of the ECO member states are among the valuable assets that can be used to meet the needs of other members of the organization to foster and strengthen relations among all ECO members, he noted.

Hassanzadeh added this will also help ECO member states to have an effective presence in global markets and will ensure greater cohesion of the organization with global trade and economy.

ECO is a Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization which was founded in 1984 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.

It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organization under the United Nations Charter. The objective is to establish a single market for goods and services. The ECO’S secretariat and cultural department are located in Iran, its economic bureau is in Turkey and its scientific bureau is situated in Pakistan.

ECO member states are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.