SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, July 2. A memorandum of understanding on cooperation in joint trade promotion activities among ECO member states is ready to be signed, the Secretary General of ECO, Asad M. Khan said, Trend's Karabakh bureau reports.
He made the announcement during the 6th ECO Business Forum on “Investment and Trade Promotion as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development in the ECO region.”
"The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Joint Trade Promotion Activities among ECO Member States has been finalized and is ready to be signed as early as June 25, 2025. The main objective of this MoU is to improve coordination and strengthen our joint efforts to promote intra-regional trade, investment, and enterprise-to-enterprise interaction," he said.
He noted that the plan is to increase, through a more structured and collaborative approach, the recognizability of ECO markets and create new commercial linkages in the region.
“We call upon all member states to finalize their internal procedures as soon as possible and proceed with signing when ready,” Asad M. Khan said.
The ECO Secretary General also invited Member States to submit concrete proposals for joint trade promotion activities for 2025 and 2026.
"This is an area where we really need to do more work because networking opportunities are what we lack in our framework. So, these initiatives can be compiled into a calendar of ECO joint trade promotion activities that will be updated annually and serve as a practical tool for coordination between our national trade promotion organizations," he said.
Asad M. Khan also announced that the Agreement on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters among ECO Member States has been finalized and is open for signature by the governments.
"This agreement marks an important milestone in our efforts to formalize and deepen legal cooperation between the customs services of our member countries. It is now time to proceed to finalize the internal procedures for signature and ratification so that the agreement enters into force and becomes fully operational as soon as possible," he noted.