A/RES/53/15 Page 3 6. Welcomes the recommendations of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific at its fifty-fourth session, held in April 1998 to promote cooperation with the Economic Cooperation Organization in the identified areas of mutual concern, and invites the Commission to enhance the mutual collaboration with that organization, focusing on implementable projects in the priority areas of the Economic Cooperation Organization, namely, transport and communications, trade, investment, energy, environment, industry and agriculture, for the overall benefit of the entire region; 7. Also welcomes the signing by the Economic Cooperation Organization and the United Nations Development Programme of the project document on capacity-building of the secretariat of the Economic Cooperation Organization, and encourages the Programme to continue to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the regional cooperation arrangements and create an enabling environment for sustainable development in the area; 8. Further welcomes the signing in December 1997 by the Economic Cooperation Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations of a memorandum of understanding, and accordingly invites the Food and Agriculture Organization, within its current mandate and resources, to consult and cooperate with the Economic Cooperation Organization in order to attain the objectives of the latter in this field; 9. Welcomes the holding, at Baku in September 1998, of a joint Economic Cooperation Organization and United Nations Population Fund conference on the role of men in reproductive health and family planning, and calls upon the Fund and other relevant United Nations organizations, in cooperation with the Economic Cooperation Organization, to continue activities in the field of public health and social development in the future; 10. Calls upon the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the relevant United Nations organizations, in pursuit of the outcome of the twentieth special session of the General Assembly, to render all possible assistance to the Economic Cooperation Organization in the implementation of its programmes and projects pertaining to the world drug problem; 11. Invites the relevant international financial institutions to extend their assistance, both technical and financial, as appropriate, to the regional development plans of the Economic Cooperation Organization in the priority areas; 12. Welcomes the decision of the Heads of Central Asian States on the creation of an international fund on saving the Aral Sea, and invites the relevant international organizations to extend financial and technical assistance towards rehabilitation programmes and projects, both ongoing and future, in certain parts of the region of the Economic Cooperation Organization that are suffering from ecological catastrophic influences, including the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site and the Sarez Lake basin; 13. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution; 14. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fourth session the item entitled "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Economic Cooperation Organization". 48th plenary meeting 29 October 1998