The press conference of Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, ECI president, and Hamid Reza Momeni, CEO of Qeshm Free Zone Organization, was held on Monday, April 22, 2019 featuring the presence of national and international journalists and media representatives.
According to ECI public relations, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, the president of this international organization, during his speech at the press conference elaborated upon the strategies of the ECO Cultural Institute in the new chapter of its activities to expand cooperation with the country's free zones, and said: "During the past year, an MoU was signed with the secretariat of the free zones of the country, according to provisions of which, increased cooperation between ECI and the free zones were put on the agenda."
Continuing his remarks, he responded to a journalist's question on the reason behind this special attention to cooperation with the free zones and said: "Tourism development is one of the main strategies of the ECO Cultural Institute in the incumbent tenure and the free zones, due to their privilege for free traveling and special facilities provided, are considered top priorities of ECI for organizing tourism-related programs."
Saying that Geotourism is one of the main categories of tourism, Dr. Mazaheri said: "Qeshm free zone is the representative of Asia in the area of geoparks and will thus in the center of attention".
The ECI president also pointed out to other special programs of this international organization for tourism promotion and continued: "Inauguration of ECO Peace Farm, 'Borderless Nowruz' celebration, ECO Diplomatic Tour in Tehran, special tourism program for the spouses of resident diplomats in Tehran, cooperation in the World Tourism Day programs, holding seminars and establishing ECI offices in other provinces, supporting conferences on the subject of ECO region during the past year, and cooperation with the Qeshm & Kish Free Zons to develop geoparks were among the several tourism events and programs organized by ECI during the past year and thus, geotourism is of special importance for ECI this year".
Concluding his remarks, the ECI president pointed to various aspect of cultural diplomacy, expressing hope that issues such as tourism, museums and sports will be more in the focus in the future and further exploited for forstering friendship among the nations of the ECO region.
Speaking at the press conference, Momeni, CEO of Qeshm Free Zone, said: "According to the agreement made with Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri, ECI president, Qeshm Free Zone will soon host ECO ambassadors on April 28-29, 2019."
He also highlighted that Qeshm Geopark is the only one of its kind in the Middle East. The CEO ofManaging director of Qeshm Free Zone further added: "Over the past two and a half years, we have been negotiating to convince Global Geoparks Network to include Qeshm. Eventually, we were able to obtain the required standards and during a ceremony participated by representatives of 27 world countries possessing a geopark, it was officially announced that Qeshm has been included in the list of world geoparks ."
Concluding his remarks, Momeni appreciated the special cooperation of ECI with Qeshm Free Zone and said: "This year, we will include space tourism in cooperation with the National Space Agency in Qeshm which will be a unique measure for the promotion of this beautiful island".