BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 28
By Amina Nazarli - Trend:
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is working on a feasibility study on the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Turkmenistan, Dmitry Mariyasin, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNECE told Trend.
“This aims at enhancing awareness and strengthening capacities of environmental and planning sectoral authorities about the benefits, principles and procedures of strategic environmental assessment, as laid out in our Protocol on SEA. This is key to ensure Environmental Assessment. Their use ensures the soundness and transparency of economic and territorial planning decisions, preventing damage to the environment and health from economic activities. This will also enhance co-operation within and across Central Asian countries,” he said.
In the area of transport, according to Mariyasin, the UNECE together with the office of the UN Resident Coordinator supported Turkmenistan in the accession to six United Nations international legal instruments in 2020.
“In 2021, cooperation with Turkmen transport stakeholders continued on accession and implementation of two vehicle-related United Nations legal instruments. This will ensure that motor vehicles in the country are safe and environmentally performance and remain in such conditions throughout their life cycle thanks to periodic technical inspection,” he said.
In his words, in the same year, Turkmenistan also acceded to two of the UNECE’s international conventions on border crossing facilitation, which will facilitate connectivity and exchanges with neighboring and other countries.
“We also provided support to Turkmenistan in the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. UNECE provided technical cooperation interventions to strengthened capacity of Turkmenistan, the Caspian and GUAM countries to digitalize information exchange along multimodal transport corridors and the Caspian Sea,” he added.