IORA Full Form

What is the Full Form of IORA?

IORA stands for the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). It was established in March 1997. India and South Africa came up with the idea for the IORA. It is a regional tripartite meeting that brings together government representatives, academics, and business leaders to promote collaboration and stronger engagement. The organisation was created on the ideas of open regionalism to increase economic cooperation, particularly in trade facilitation, investment, social development, and promotion of the region. It currently has 23 member countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. IORA has ten dialogue partners: China, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Turkey, and the United States of America.

Objectives Of IORA

• To support the region's and member nations' long-term growth and balanced development.

• To concentrate on areas of economic cooperation that provide the greatest potential for progress, common interest, and mutual profit.

• To encourage liberalisation, eliminate bottlenecks, and decrease barriers to a more accessible and efficient movement of commodities, services, investment, and technology throughout the Indian Ocean rim.

Priority Areas

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has selected six priority areas:

• Maritime security

• Commerce and investment facilitation

• Fisheries management

• Catastrophe risk reduction

• Academic and scientific collaboration

• Tourist promotion and cultural exchanges are all priorities.

IORA has also designated two emphasis areas: Blue Economy and Women's Economic Empowerment.

Structure

The IORA's highest authority, the Council of Foreign Ministers, meets once a year. After the United Arab Emirates (UAE) held the post from November 2019 to November 2021, the People's Republic of Bangladesh took over as Chair from November 2021 to November 2023. A committee of senior officials (CSO) meets twice a year to advance IORA's agenda and to consider recommendations from working groups and forums of government representatives, business leaders, and academics for the implementation of programmes and initiatives to improve the quality of life for citizens in Indian Ocean Member States.

Achievements

Membership expansion: The original membership of IORA, then known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative, consisted of only seven nations, known as the "Magnificent 7" which were hosted by Mauritius. There were 14 member nations in March 1997, when the initial ministerial conference was conducted. There are now 23 member states and 10 dialogue partners. Significantly, the organisation can now claim to span the Indian Ocean Region, and the inclusion of major states as discussion partners has significantly strengthened IORA's power.

Widening scope: IORA's focus has been expanded to include broader maritime security aims. Most notably, there is an emphasis on non-traditional security problems, which are becoming increasingly important in the maritime sector despite its original restricted focus on economic and commercial cooperation.

Major projects

Fisheries Support Unit (FSU)

The National Centre for Marine Sciences and Fisheries is home to the Fisheries Support Unit. It is the first initiative sponsored by the Special Fund, which commenced operations in late 2011. The FSU aims to strengthen member-state fisheries cooperation and conduct research to manage and protect fish populations. Notably, the FSU is entirely built on conversation. It neither makes judgements regarding fisheries management or issues such as IUU fishing nor provides advice on the subject.

RCSTT

It stands for Regional Center for Science and Technology Transfer and was founded in October 2008. Tehran (Iran) serves as the main base for the IORA RCSTT. The institution's resources address issues such as disaster response and establishing a gene bank for medicinal plants.

The Indian Ocean Dialogue (IOD)

It is a Track 1.5 debate that began at the 13th Council of Ministers meeting in 2013. It brings together academics and decision-makers from member countries to engage in discussions about the Indian Ocean Region and IORA Member States.

ISDP (IORA Sustainable Development Program)

The ISDP was founded in 2014 in order to bridge the gap between affluent and poor member states by exchanging best practices in the Blue Economy. The ISDP, like most other IORA programmes, strongly focuses on knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer learning.

India And IORA

India has advocated its stated "coordination, collaboration, and partnership" policy in the marine sector. As the priority area coordinator for disaster risk management, India has established recommendations for IORA. It has also persuaded partners to join the Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Alliance, which was inaugurated at the United Nations in September 2019. India has emerged as the IOR's information network supplier. It also established the Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram to provide real-time crisis information to IOR member nations. India's information support infrastructure includes Bangladesh, Mauritius, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles. Indian policy recognises that IORA is not an Indian-run marine domain, which is reflected in the government's Security Policy.