Mr. Chairman,

Honorable Ambassadors and Representatives of the Member States,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As the new President of the ECO Cultural Institute, it is an honor to address the Council of Permanent Representatives of the ECI, for the first time in this capacity, and that too on this auspicious occasion of the new year 2024. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this esteemed organization and look forward to working with all of Your Excellencies to promote cultural collaboration and joint activities within the ECO region in the coming years.

Allow me to begin by expressing my deep felicitations to the Islamic Republic of Iran for having assumed the chairmanship of the CPR and to express my sincere hope that the ECO Cultural Institute will enjoy the leadership support of the Islamic Republic in expanding its outreach and achieving its goals.

I welcome the presence of His Excellency Huseyin Avni Bicakli, Deputy Secretary General of the ECO in this CPR and trust that this healthy tradition will continue.

Dear Colleagues,

Before this meeting, I tried to hold formal, or, as the case may be, informal meetings with the ECO Secretary General, the Presidents of the other two ECO Specialized Agencies, namely, the ECO Science Foundation and the ECO Educational Institute, and heads of the diplomatic missions of all ten ECO member states accredited to the ECO, including the five that are also full members of the ECI, the three states that enjoy an Observer status and the two ECO states which are potential ECI members, to gauge the viewpoint of the countries. The level of support I received from most states was amazing, to say the least, for which I shall remain indebted. We discussed the need for greater cultural collaboration and planning for future joint activities.  I am confident that with your support, we can achieve these goals and foster greater participation from all ECO member states.

The ECO Cultural Institute which will be sixty years old in 2026, has a long way to go, to achieve the objectives for which it was established. This is a long enough time that the member states may start considering whether we need any reforms in the ways this organization has been run thus far. For this, there may be a number of ideas that the member states may take into consideration and may like to make decisions about at the higher forums such as the Board of Trustees in the coming months.

First of all, let me opine that the role of ECI as per its Charter is envisaged as akin to a regional UNESCO, that is, ECI has almost the same status with reference to the ECO as the UNESCO has with respect to the United Nations. However, the word “Institute” in its name appears a bit misleading to denote that it is a stand-alone institute or a center, rather than a specialized agency consisting of several member states. It may be a time the word “Institute” may be replaced by the word “organization” in its formal name. The ECI may get a new name like ECO Region Cultural Organization without necessarily changing its Persian nomenclature.

Secondly, the ECI is also facing acute shortage of financial resources due to piling up of arrears which are close to two million US dollars. Since 2024 has started the fresh subscriptions for the new year, amounting to USD 6,28,000 have also become due and I would earnestly request your Excellencies to impress upon your governments to at least pay this year’s subscriptions in time and consider paying at least half of the arrears. I, as the President, would request the member states to support the ECI initiatives for raising revenues through limited commercial activities like language courses or renting out facilities as detailed in the Activity Report. In addition, we need the support of member states to explore funding opportunities and submit projects for financing to international agencies such as UNESCO, the ISESCO, UNDP, IOM or `national donor agencies such as JICA within the meaning of “Other sources” under Art VII of the Charter. It will be imperative that the ECI is encouraged to start communicating with international and regional cultural organizations such as UNESCO, ISESCO and the cultural agency of the Organization of Turkic States, under Art. VI of the Charter, to explore avenues of cooperation and discussing the possibility of giving each other observer status for the meetings.

Third, to come out of its financial troubles, the ECI needs membership expansion. I will request the existing member states to use their diplomatic influence in convincing the Observer states, namely, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, that are already signatories to the Charter to join as full members. My predecessor President has laid excellent groundwork of dialogue with non-member states such as Uzbekistan to consider joining the ECI as narrated in detail in Activity Report 2023.

Fourthly, and this is closely connected with both the second and third points above, our Observer Member states are less likely to join, until the existing member states remain less inclined to pay the dues, and unless the ECI has greater visibility and outreach in all the member states. The states and their peoples have to feel the presence and relevance of the ECI to their national interests. Allow me to mention that under the ECI Charter, while its headquarter is to be located in Tehran, it is mandated to have Branch offices in all ECO states. Due to financial constraints, it may not be feasible in the short run to fund dedicated branches. However, support of the ECI member states is requested to help designate one of the ECO organs located in the respective countries or a national cultural center to sign an MoU with the ECI to act our coordination unit in the state concerned as envisaged under Art IV of the Charter.

Fifthly, in order to reinforce ownership of ECI amongst the member states, observer states, and the prospective member states, we need to have the Board of Trustees meetings biennially or triennially as envisaged in Paragraph A of Chapter I of the ECI Rules of Procedure which already has had a long gap due to Covid and other issues. May I request the current chair, namely, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to consider holding BoT meeting twice during their Chairmanship to set a high benchmark. And the first step towards their regularity is the need for full composition of BoT which should include one eminent cultural personality each from all regular and observer member states. May I appeal to all representatives of member states to approach their governments to nominate “one eminent cultural personality” to attend the forthcoming 7^th Meeting of the Board of Trustees along with the Minister for Culture of the esteemed member states.

Sixthly, we may also have CPRs with greater regularity and I would request the hon’able Ambassadors to consider attending the CPR-ECI always in person. If the member states agree, we may occasionally have CPR-ECIs outside of Tehran such as at Isfahan or Mashhad etc.

Seventhly, I must highlight that the funding constraints had made the salaries of ECI staff totally uncompetitive with the market. An English proverb sometimes attributed to His Excellency, Lee Kwan Yew, long time premier of Singapore, that “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”, with reference to salaries of national or international civil servants. Low salary structure wrt to the parent agency, ECO, has become all the more outdated since the ECI pay scales have not been revised since 2014 while the cost of living in Tehran in the past six years alone, has rose between 340 to 700% according to various reliable estimates. Meaning thereby that our employees, including international civil servants, are in real terms, getting one fourth of what their predecessors were getting few years back. The same ranks, D-3, D-2 and D-1 in main ECO Secretariat and ECI Headquarters, just a couple of kilometers apart in Tehran have wide discrepancies, resulting in high turnover of employees, with only those sticking around who might not have been able to get absorbed in the labor market of Tehran.

Just to quote one revealing example, while the ECI Staff Regulations (Art 13.3) dictate that the President has to be provided with a fully furnished accommodation commensurate with that of the status of an ambassador, his house rent grant is less than that of the First/Second Secretary, relatively much junior diplomatic ranks in his home state’s embassy here in Tehran. The long term argument about the delay was the lack of resources which, since the joining of Turkiye, has been resolved. Since all three countries which account for 80-90% budget of ECI are now full member states, it would be logical if salary of head of ECI is set at 80% of the head of ECO, and likewise for all ranks. A detailed proposal shall be made shortly to be circulated amongst member states for their consideration before the upcoming BoT.

Eighthly, the President of ECI, as per the eligibility requirements under Art III, clause 3 of the Charter, has to be an eminent dignitary in the field of culture. Every President of ECI in the past was supposed to have some expertise in the field of arts and culture. The only compatriot before him to have headed this Institute, Mr Iftikhar Arif, was a poet of repute and we all know about his attention towards poetry events during his tenure. The present president is an expert in military music, and thus far the only Muslim person ever to have risen to the position of Chairman of the International Military Music Society. He has discussed the idea of having an annual ECO military bands festival in the Fall of each year in a different member state. This august forum is requested to give its blessing to go ahead with further deliberations on this idea especially with respect to its funding, with UNESCO or any other potential donors.

Ninthly, ECI had announced ECO Youth Awards with the hope that one of the outstanding youngster, between ages 18 to 30, would be selected for the Award. For various reasons, which can be discussed orally today under the head of the relevant agenda item or in a special CPR specifically on Youth Awards, we received excluding Afghanistan just ONE, repeat One, valid entry from the whole ECO region, while we were expecting not less than tens, if not hundreds, from each country. The issue of publicity of ECO Youth Awards has been discussed with all member states of ECO, and it is earnestly requested that the revised call for entries which will be out in coming weeks, after removal of deficiencies, is given wide publicity in your home countries for gaining maximum participation.

And finally, given the importance of financial resources to achieve the objectives for which ECI had been created, I would earnestly request the member states to pay this year’s dues during the first quarter of 2024. It would be less than fruitful to propose a budget when the available resources for this year are far from certain. Hence, CPR is requested to allow expenditure as per the past year’s approved budget till the finalization and approval of a fresh budget that we can discuss further under the relevant agenda item after my speech.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before concluding my speech, I am pleased to inform you that during my few weeks of Presidency, I have held over fifty meetings with diplomatic and cultural personalities and institutions from ECO member states including Saadi Foundation of Iran, National Arts Gallery of Pakistan, Yunus Emre Institute of Turkiye, Hayder Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan,  and many others, as mentioned in the Activity Report. The outcome of these meetings will take time to be realized.

The ECI has arranged many exhibitions, for instance, an exhibition of historical photos of Türkiye in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic was arranged in October. One on the photographs of activities of ECO, another of paintings and calligraphies of Afghan artists, one arranged by the Republic of Slovakia and several more exhibitions are in the pipeline for the coming weeks.

You will be delighted to know that in the past few weeks, the ECO Cultural Institute is proactively organizing events despite its limited resources. For example, we are grateful to the ECO for having celebrated the ECO Day celebrations on our campus. We celebrated the World Book Day through an event titled “Books: A Time-Honored Bridge of Friendship Among ECO Member States” in collaboration with the Iran Book and Literature Institute, Ketab.TV, Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), and Farhang Radio Network. We also celebrated Yalda night, the winter solstice, with fun, music and poetry recitation. “Dang-Dang Koban” music group performed several pieces of music, creating an artistic and enjoyable atmosphere. An exhibition of handicrafts and visual arts related to Yalda was concurrently arranged.

I am also happy to inform you that while times are tough for artists and musicians in Afghanistan, the ECO Cultural Institute has opened its doors for Afghan singers, painters and musicians.  We dedicated the new year night between 31 December and 1^st January 2023/24 to them and declared it as Afghanistan Night. It was widely attended and broad coverage of it on television channels, news websites and newspapers was given.

Excellencies,

Hearts of all the civilized nations of the world are bleeding for what is happening in Gaza strip for weeks and months. Within its mandate of cultural preservation, the ECI held a seminar-cum-webinar in hybrid mode about the cultural heritage of Gaza and to emphasize that the deliberate destruction of cultural properties is a war crime. The speakers from Iran, Turkiye, Tanzania, and Pakistan addressed the event while the Ambassador of Palestine was the chief guest. The ECI participated in the Diplomatic Ladies Association of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs charity bazaar to support the oppressed people of Gaza. The event was attended by distinguished members and diplomats from 24 foreign embassies. The ECI also tried to arrange an exhibition of artists from Palestine but no such artist could be found in Iran.

Dear Colleagues,

During the last Executive Committee meeting of the ECI held a month ago and was participated by the distinguished counsellors/ representatives of the embassies, the esteemed member states were kindly requested to provide their proposed programs and activities to be jointly organized with the ECI 2024. However, we only received proposals from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Tajikistan. The other member states may kindly convey their proposals to this Institute at the earliest to enable us to present them at RPC starting on 22^nd January 2024. This would help the ECI arrange its calendar of events for the year ahead.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We understand that the Board of Trustees holds the highest authority in making decisions and policies for the Institute. As such, we kindly request the host authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to make the necessary arrangements for holding the 7^th BoT meeting in the coming months.

Excellencies,

The receipt of the annual contribution for the year 2023 from the Republic of Türkiye last October, for which we extend our gratitude to the member country, helped the Institute to pay off debt to its official staff for their overdue salary. Hence, at the cost of repetition I must underline that we will face financial difficulty again in the coming months if the remaining part of the member states’ annual contributions and outstanding arrears are not settled.  Therefore, the esteemed member states are requested to kindly take necessary measures for acceleration in payment of their outstanding arrears. The details of the latest status of payments and arrears of the member states will be provided under the relevant agenda item.

In conclusion, I extend my gratitude to you for gracing this gathering with your esteemed presence.

Thank you