Department of Commerce Sri Lanka

Background
In 1963 the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) convened the 1st Meeting of the Council of Ministers on Asian Economic Cooperation. The aim of the meeting was to allow countries to present their views to the ECAFE secretariat on ways and means to promote regional cooperation. Subsequently, the 4th Meeting of the Council of Ministers on Economic Cooperation held in December 1970 adopted a resolution now known as the Kabul Declaration, which called upon ECAFE (now ESCAP, for United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) to develop measures for intra-regional trade expansion and other measures for economic cooperation.