The meeting was attended by representatives of the chambers of commerce and industry of the organization’s member states – Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, members of the Senate and deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, representatives of the diplomatic corps, ministries and agencies responsible for tourism, transport, trade, industry and investment, the Women’s Committee, the business community.

The meeting was chaired by the Republic of Turkey. Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan Adkham Ikramov, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Economic Cooperation Organization Azarakhsh Hafizi, President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States Baghdad Amreyev addressed the meeting.

During the 3-day event, meetings of the Women Entrepreneurs Council of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry, its committees on tourism, transport, industrial development and investment, small and medium-sized businesses, trade facilitation and the Arbitration Committee were held. Issues of development of trade-economic cooperation between member states of the organization, strengthening regional cooperation in the spheres of trade, industry, entrepreneurship were discussed.

It should be noted that such a high-level event of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held in Uzbekistan for the first time. Over the years, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan chaired the organization. Today, the trade turnover between organization’s member states, the population of which is more than 440 million, exceeds 600 billion USD.

At the meeting, activities of sectoral institutions of the organization for the current year were summed up, proposals and initiatives on strengthening cooperation between the chambers of commerce and industry of the member states were considered.

The participants became familiar with the ongoing large-scale business development reforms in Uzbekistan and measures taken to protect the interests of foreign investors.

An agreement was reached on holding a fair and workshop of women entrepreneurs in Turkey in 2019, creating a web portal of the Women Entrepreneurs Council.

Tourism is one of the promising areas of partnership within the organization. Participants of the meeting unanimously supported the participation of businesswomen of the member states in the upcoming International Festival of Artisans in 2019 in Kokand and development of a roadmap on development of tourism for 2019. It was decided to hold the next International Tourism Investment Forum in the city of Istanbul.

Views were exchanged on the opening of the Arbitration Center of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to assist in resolving disputes over cross-border issues in the region.

Following the event, an agreement was signed on the organization of Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan Business Council between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as a Memorandum of Cooperation between the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Turkey Business Council.