Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May /corr. Trend U.Ismaylova / Function of the free trade zones in the GUAM participating countries gives an opportunity to forecast a $10bln trade turnover by 2012, Sabuhi Temirov, the coordinator of economic programs of GUAM, said in an international conference 'Development strategy of GUAM' in Baku on 29 May.
"By the end of 2008, the amount of the trade turnover between the GUAM member-countries will increase up to $8bln," Temirov said.
An agreement to establish a free trade zones was signed in Yalta on 20 July 2002.
Temirov said that trade turnover between the GUAM countries totaled $1.5bln in 2005, $2.1bln in 2006 and $3.2bln in 2007.
In addition, Temirov said that GUAM project to assist trade and transport also affects improvement of economic relations between the organization member-countries. One of the key tasks of the project is to devise the route ensuring trade through simplified border and custom procedures.
According to Temirov, the key problem in devising this program was absence of harmonized legislation corresponding to the internationally accepted standards, which are necessary for the efficient functioning of the border and custom control, insufficient technical supply of the checkpoints, lack of communication tools and lack of contemporary training programs.
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