Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey to implement transit corridor: Afghan official

Islamabad, Feb 14, IRNA - Director-General of transit and trade facilitation, Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan says that Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey have agreed to take practical steps to establish trade and transit corridor among the three regional countries. Sayed Yahya Akhlaqi said this during an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on the sidelines of the 9th meeting of the Road Committee of Transit Transport Coordination Council (TTCC) of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Pakistani Capital. He said that the corridor was approved during the 28th meeting of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Regional Planning Council (ECORPC) in Islamabad, December last year. He said that during the ECO meeting, the tripartite corridor would also come under discussion which would help in promoting economic cooperation among the countries of the region. Sayed Yahya Akhlaqi emphasized the need for enhancing the regional and bilateral trade activities to boost joint cooperation in transit and transport sectors of regional countries, especially the ECO countries. He was of the view that reducing transit duty among the ECO countries and fast visa issuance are among a few steps that would facilitate more trade in the region. The three-day long 9th meeting of the TTCC of ECO member-states is currently underway in Islamabad. The meeting will review progress on the implementation of the ECO-approved programs/projects and consider proposals for new agreements. The conference will discuss transit transport issues along with visa issues to the drivers with an objective to enhance transit trade among the ECO states. ECO which is an inter-governmental organization was established in 1985 and has ten member-states including Iran, Azerbaijan Republic, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. 1378/IRNA