The Minister of Economic Development and Trade took part in the 18th session of the SPECA Governing Council and proposed priority areas of activity in the coming years

On November 23, 2023, the 18th session of the Governing Council of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) was held in Baku, in which the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin took part and spoke.

Zavqizoda Z.A., thanking the Azerbaijani side for the warm welcome and high level of organization, noted that Tajikistan, under the wise and far-sighted policy of the Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan His Excellency the respected Emomali Rahmon, attaches great importance to strengthening economic cooperation within the framework of SPECA and called on colleagues to strengthen close regional interaction.

The head of the delegation of Tajikistan, based on strategic documents, proposed that the SPECA Governing Council focus on the following priority areas of activity in the coming years, including simplification of trade procedures and the elimination of artificial barriers to trade, development of multimodal transport and economic corridors, development of a green economy and digitalization.

The session discussed the creation of the SPECA Trust Fund, the SPECA Terms of Reference, the SPECA Summit, the Roadmap for the digitalization of multimodal exchange of data and documents along the Trans-Caspian Transport Middle Corridor using UN legal instruments and standards and the selection of the next SPECA chairing country.

It is worth noting that in the last six years the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan have been intensively proposing the creation of the SPECA Trust Fund and today this issue has already been resolved.

At the end of the event, the Governing Council, as the highest body of SPECA, made appropriate decisions regarding further strengthening of cooperation.

It should be noted that SPECA was established in 1998 and its member countries are Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.