3rd Ministerial Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organisation was held in Tehran, between 22-23 December 2008, with the participation of the ministries and senior officials responsible to economy and finance of the 10 ECO member states as well as representatives of the international financial and monetary organizations.

At the meeting, the Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Mr. Shamseddin Hosseini made a welcome speech, referring that “the ECO Trade and Development Bank is a successful example of joint action among members”.

In his speech, the President of the ECO Trade and Development Bank, Mr. Murat Ulus recalled other ECO member states to consider becoming a member to the ECOBANK and benefit from the activities of the Bank. He said that “we should be ready to bear the limited, short-term cost of long-term benefits. I am hopeful that these difficult times would create more consideration and attention towards joining the Bank. I am confident that, with participation of other ECO countries we would be stronger to achieve our targets”.

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad made the closing statement of the Meeting by underlying the importance of increasing cooperation among the ECO member countries. The President Ahmadinejad called member states to help strengthen the ECO by expanding bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the technological, scientific, technical and engineering projects as well as deepening economic relations on agricultural, industrial ans tourism areas.