ECO

Because of the many geopolitical potentials and communicational capabilities of ECO region, members could expand the convergency based on this organization which plays a key part in development of members and expandsion of peace and security. Due to studying the effective factors of Regional Organizations (ROs), particularly those of ECO, it seems that the resultant of internal and external regional forces fails to empower ECO members’ integration, but with a review of other successful ROs, it is revealed that they have a process mechanism which strengthens convergent forces and mitigates the divergent ones with institutionalized tools and active positive diplomacy. Based on qualitative analysis conducted on desk and in interview with geopolitical experts; this study seeks to answer the question: what are the effective factors of formation and evolution of ROs in general and those of ECO in particular? The results of the research indicate that creating a regional consciousness and a common understanding of capabilities and geopolitical values in ECO region has failed to reach maturity. The structure of competition between members represents the lack of regional common understanding on these values. Despite the progress, the evolution of structural and organizational development of ECO and its essential documents; the weakness of policy to create coordination in multilateral diplomacy, the weakness of domestic political institutions, the weakness of organizational structure, especially in staff and technical expertise, and eventually incompetency of organization and human resources, especially in the Secretariat, have caused many inefficiencies and structural weaknesses in ECO.

In recent years, supporting intellectual property right has gained more significance. Intellectual property rights could be considered as legal rights resulting from intellectual activities in industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Today, many countries are seeking practical information about using intellectual property to improve economic growth. Intellectual property rights have an important role in long term, economic growth of communities so international institutions such as Global Business Organization and Global Intellectual Property Organization have been advising their members based on providing and reinforcing this determinate in recent years. Also the gap in intellectual property regimes among developed and developing countries is considered as one of the reasons of differences in economic growth and development in these countries. Intellectual property right is important from the viewpoint of developing countries and in relation with its impact and outcomes on economic development, and stable human development. Considering the global changes and internationalization of production, distribution and consumption, it is necessary to observe all aspect of intellectual property rights. In this research, we intend to study the relationship between intellectual property rights and economic growth for 10 countries of ECO members during 2000-2009. Analysing the effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth is focused on the quantity index of intellectual property rights. The key finding of this study suggests the significant effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth of the ECO member countries.  JEL Classification: E11, C52, C22, B52, O48, O43, P48.