NAVEED BUTT

ISLAMABAD: A high-level delegation of Planning Commission will participate in a conference of Regional Planning Council (RPC) of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), which would be held from December 5 to December 8 in Tehran to discuss the issues of energy, trade, investment and development of regional power trading and others, it is learnt.

The high-level Planning officials from the member states as well as heads of ECO specialised agencies and regional centres will present national statements/progress reports in the plenary session scheduled for 5th December. The meeting will take stock of the ECO activities in the last year and will develop the annual ECO work programme for the year 2017.

According to sources, Joint Chief Economist of Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform Samiullah Khan is leading the delegation to Tehran that will leave tomorrow (Monday).

The sources said that the issues related to trade, investment, energy, economic development, transport and communication, sustainable development goals and others would be discussed in the conference of the RPC. The sources said that recent ECO activities in energy sector included development of regional power trading, ECO region's oil and gas pipeline route(s), production, refining and consumption of oil and gas in ECO Member States, energy efficiency and conservation, energy data collection and updating, exchange of information on technical experts, technology transfer, operational experience, research and technical publications as well as energy strategies, policy and implementation experience and energy resources development and their environmental impact assessments.

They said that industry sector is of high importance for the economic development of ECO Member States. They said that ECO Member States have common interests and problems in the region. Increasing productivity, enhancement of capacity in their relevant institutions, development of economic infrastructures, and promotion of industrial trade are among the problems member states are facing within their industrial sector, they said.

They said that in order to solve these problems, member states need to establish an institutional working relationship at national as well as international and regional levels.