Turkmenistan will assume the chairmanship of the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) in 2023.
This was announced by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Tatiana Molchan, during an international conference in Ashgabat, Eurasia Today reports.
Currently, the participants of SPECA include Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The participating countries have developed ambitious plans, the implementation of which is expected during Turkmenistan's chairmanship in 2025.
Turkmenistan previously held this role in 2019 when the Ashgabat Initiative was launched aimed at reducing trade and transport barriers through the introduction of relevant legal instruments, norms, and standards.
In November 2023, the first SPECA summit took place, during which the Declaration and Roadmap for Digitization were approved to ensure multimodal data exchange through the Trans-Caspian transport corridor.
These measures are aimed at transforming Central Asia into an important global transport and logistics hub.
Experts at the special program forums emphasize the region's significance in diversifying transit routes, digitization, as well as developing trade and transport infrastructure.
SPECA was founded on March 26, 1998, in Uzbekistan, when the presidents of the Central Asian countries and the executive secretaries of the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) signed the Tashkent Declaration. The main goal of the program is to support economic development, promote cooperation, and integrate the region into the global economy.
CenralasianLIGHT.org
April 13, 2024