Tools and Capacities of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) for Iran's Development

After 15 years، now it is logical to ask whether ECO can still play an effective role in Iran’s development. By raising this question and reviewing the economic capacities of ECO member states in the current decade under two categories of Central Asian Countries and Founding Countries، this article shows the relative success of these economies through five elements of price of oil، gas، raw and mineral materials، increasing the price of agricultural materials، attracting foreign direct investment and relative economic and political stability. The article then argues that this boom will pave the way for economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran by means of enlarging regional market and boosting volume of interregional transactions. It also makes a general evaluation of the impacts of the world economic crisis and shows that although the crisis has clearly interrupted the growth trend of economic indices of the region، its impacts have been less than other parts of the world and the economic boom will be resumed as the crisis wave goes by.