An intergovernmental regional organisation, the ECO was established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation. It is the successor to Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) that lasted from 1964 to 1979 and is widely remembered for the highway from Karachi to Quetta, and beyond to Iran and Turkey, named after the organisation.
The bloc expanded massively in 1992, when newly-liberated Central Asian States, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, along with Afghanistan joined the organisation.
At present, the bloc includes 10 countries, 416 million people and generates about $2.7 trillion in income. In comparison, the European Union includes 27 countries, a population of over 500 million, and combined income of almost $16 trillion. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) includes 10 countries.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2012.
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