Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)

ECO was initially established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. Later in 1992, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan also joined the organization. As joining point of three continents i.e. Asia, Europe and Africa, ECO enjoys a privileged and strategic situation at the international level. The availability of oil and gas as well as pristine mineral resources in most of the ECO member countries, have provided invaluable capital to this organization. considering land border of Iran with other five ECO members and its strategic geographical situation to connect the ECO member countries to international waters as well as the establishment of the ECO permanent secretariat in Tehran, caused Iran to play a key role in this organization.

The objectives of ECO

• Creating conditions for sustainable economic development and promoting the life quality as well as increasing welfare in the member countries
• Gradual elimination of trade barriers in the ECO region and promoting trade development across intra & extra regions
• Encouraging the promotion of economic cooperation based on the essential ideals of ECO members to play a further important role in assisting development of global trade
• Eliminating the unfair trade policies for all developing countries, especially for the ECO members
• Promoting and advancing active regional cooperation and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields
• Preparing a joint program for advancing human resources in ECO region
• Strengthening regional mobilization to exploit the natural resources of ECO region, particularly energy resources

Opportunities ahead of petrochemical industry

Considering the conditions of the regional and intra-regional cooperation between ECO member countries and the European banks and financial institutions’ interest in developing the energy sector of member countries, Iran’s petrochemical industry, enjoying great production capacities in up and down streams, has always supported the implementation of value chain completing plants by using modernized and well-known know-how and technologies with less energy consumptions. In this regard, Iran’s petrochemical industry is prepared to enter into constructive cooperation and interaction with the ECO member countries to initiate downstream and intermediate petrochemical projects financed by ECO members and European countries.