ICARDA
News
INTERNATIONAL
CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
26
June 2003
For
more information contact:S.Varma@cgiar.org
ICARDA
Participates in ECO Ministers Meeting
Reconstruction
of Afghanistan was central in discussions at the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization
(ECO) Council of Ministers meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 11 June 2003.
H.E. the President of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Mr Askar Akaev, opened the
meeting. Dr Raj Paroda, Coordinator of ICARDA's Regional Program in Central
Asia and the Caucasus and Head of the CGIAR's Program Facilitation Unit, based
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, represented ICARDA.
The Ministers, or their deputies, from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Iran, Tajikistan,
Pakistan, and Afghanistan also focused on cooperation in trade, energy, agriculture,
and the environment. Issues related to transportation and communication were
addressed in relation to Transit Trade and Transport Framework Agreements.
Of special interest to ICARDA were discussions on (1) development of institutional
linkages among agricultural research and training institutes in the region,
for which ECO would like ICARDA, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank to provide support, and (2)
development of a mission document on ECO Cooperation in Agriculture, which was
included in ECO's workplan in 2000/01.
Dr Paroda met with ECO Secretary General, Mr Saidu Mojataba Arastou, as well
as the organization's three Deputy Secretaries General, and representatives
of various countries. He took the opportunity to brief them on ICARDA's activities
in the region.
Mr Arastou expressed appreciation to ICARDA and its Director General, Prof.
Dr Adel El-Beltagy, for
H.E.
Mr Askar Akaev (center), President, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, opened the 13th
ECO Meeting of Council of Ministers, held in Bishkek on 11 June 2003.
sustained
support of ECO, and expressed his hope for expanded cooperation in the future.
HE Mr Askar Aitmatov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kyrgyzstan, was elected Chairman
of ECO, and Mr Beknasar Narbayev, from Kazakhstan, was elected Secretary General.
He will take over from Mr Arastou on 1 August 2003.
ICARDA posters and publications were much appreciated by the delegates. The
Center's poster on Afghanistan was well received, especially by the Afghan delegation
led Dr Mohammad Rahim Sherzoy, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The ECO member countries include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Its
Secretariat is in Tehran.
ICARDA
was represented at the ECO Meeting of Council of Ministers by Dr Raj Paroda
(right), Regional Coordinator, ICARDA-CAC.
ICARDA's
(www.icarda.org) mission is to improve the welfare of people and alleviate
poverty through research and training in dry areas of the developing world
by increasing production, productivity, and nutritional quality of food, while
preserving and enhancing the natural resource base. ICARDA is a Future Harvest
Center.
