Kazakhstan says ECO summit can ease global financial crisis

TEHRAN. March 13. KAZINFORM Kazakh Ambassador to Tehran Yerik Utembayev on Saturday said the 10th summit meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tehran can play a ?significant role? in resolving the global financial crisis.

The tenth ECO summit meeting is scheduled to start in Tehran on Wednesday. It will discuss the organization's response to global economic crisis. While the world is grappling with the current economic downturn, the upcoming meeting can play a role by taking important decisions, he told reporters in a press meeting in Tehran. ?Joint efforts? to ease the present financial crisis, forming a ?united market? and developing transportation among ECO member states are among the key issues that will be discussed in the meeting, he noted. He also said that his country is interested to discuss reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Utembayev went on to say that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has marked out some of the reasons of the global crisis and that the president?s proposals can help the efforts at the ECO meeting in Tehran. ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the Member States. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan joined ECO in 1992. Presidents from six member states will attend the March 11 summit. Qatari Amir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will also attend the summit, Kazinform refers to Tehran Times.