Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Nov.11 / Trend H. Hasanov /
The Economic Forum within the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), with a key-note "20 years of regional economic cooperation and integration of Central Asian countries: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects" is underway in Ashgabat on these days.
The forum is organized by the Turkmen Government - the acting chairman of SPECA - jointly with the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia.
According to the organizers, the agenda includes discussion of achieved progress in the development of regional economic cooperation and integration, as well as an action plan to further strengthen economic cooperation and facilitate the integration of the Central Asian countries.
In particular, issues regarding facilitating development of the regional trade, transport, transit and investment will be considered on Friday.
SPECA participants are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan was elected as chairman of the program in accordance with the unanimous decision of the 5th session of the SPECA Governing Council in October 2010.
This meeting is attended by heads and representatives of the UN agencies, European Union, the OSCE, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the number of regional and international agencies.
The main goal of SPECA, established in 1998 and implemented under the auspices of UNECE and ESCAP, is to assist the Central Asian countries to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, promotion of economic development and integration into the global economic system.