Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 7
By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:
The ninth session of the Governing Council of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) opened in Ashgabat Dec. 5, a source close to the organization of the event told Trend.
SPECA was established in 1998 in accordance with the Tashkent Declaration, signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Executive Secretaries of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Later, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan joined the program.
The SPECA Economic Forum has been recently held in Ashgabat. Besides the above-mentioned organizations, the delegations from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Turkmenistan attended the forum, the Turkmen TV channel Altyn Asyr reported.
The issues related to the improvement of communication capabilities in the SPECA region, as well as among Afghanistan and Central Asian countries were discussed during the forum sessions. The ESCAP reports in these areas were delivered.
"The further cooperation prospects in assisting the Central Asian countries, strengthening the mutually beneficial cooperation, promoting the economic development and integration into the global economic system were determined following the meeting," the report says.
It was stressed during the sessions that the creation of qualitative infrastructure has a positive effect on economic growth, promotes the expansion of the trade sphere, optimizes the use of natural resources and reduces production and logistics costs.
"It was also stressed that every year the integration of Central Asian countries into the world economy has a key role in the successful repulse of economic, social and political challenges," Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said.
At the same time, the growing importance of regional cooperation has an impact on improving the competitiveness of the countries in rapidly changing global processes, the newspaper said.