ECI held the inauguration ceremony of its new president.
During a ceremony held on December 30, 2019 at ECI headquarters, H.E. Mr. Sarvar Bakhti, the new ECI president, was officially inaugurated. Present at the ceremony were political and cultural officials of the host country, ambassadors and representatives of various diplomatic missions stationed in Tehran as well as artists, intellectuals and cultural figures.
Dr. Asharf Boroujerdi, the director of Iran National Library and Archives and deputy Iranian President; Gholamreza Ansari, deputy Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs in Economic Diplomacy; Hadi Soleimanpour, ECO Secretary General; Seyed Yahya Akhlaghi, Deputy ECO Secretary General; Ghorban Ali Pourmarjan, deputy chairman of Islamic Culture and Relations Organization for the Development of International Affairs; Nizamuddin Zahedi, Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan; Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic Afghanistan; Dr. Derya Örs, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey; and representatives from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Russia, Kyrgyz Republic and China.
Other participants of the event included representatives of different cultural organizations such as the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Iranian Academy of Arts, Academy of Persian Language and Literature, the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, Iran and Tajikistan Friendship Association, Islamic Development Organization, Asian Mayors Forum and some universities.
The ceremony opened with a speech by ECO Secretary General followed by the remarks of deputy Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs in Economic Diplomacy, director of Iran National Library and Archives and deputy Iranian President, Ambassadors of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkey in Iran and deputy chairman of Islamic Culture and Relations Organization for the Development of International Affairs all of whom congratulated Bakhti as the ECI new president and expressed their full, all-out support over ECI's plans and programs to be carried out during his presidency.
The event concluded with Sarvar Bakhti expressing his gratitude to the attending officials, heads and representatives of diplomatic missions. He further ensured the participants of his utmost effort to encourage non-ratifying ECO member states to join ECI as full members. He then highlighted the development of tourism, organization of conferences and workshops to promote the rich cultural legacy of the region as the most important activities on the agenda during his term of service.
Sarvar Bakhti, who is a national of Tajikistan, has been appointed to lead ECI for the upcoming years. According to ECI charter, The President of the Institute is nominated from amongst eminent dignitaries of the member states in the cultural field for a term of three years by rotation.