On April 17 this year Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, took part in the Ministerial Meeting of the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia and the Republic of Azerbaijan (SPECA) via videoconferencing.

In his speech, Laziz Kudratov noted the strong ties between the countries of the region, stressing the proximity of traditions, customs and cultural values. In symbiosis with Uzbekistan's active foreign economic policy in recent years, this proximity has brought significant results in trade, economic and investment areas. In particular, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and SPECA member states has doubled in recent years, reaching 9.2 BN USD. The number of enterprises in Uzbekistan, established jointly with companies operating in the region, has increased five times to 2,212 units since 2017.

The attention of the participants was drawn to the trade and economic potential, significant natural and human resources and advantageous geographical location of the region's countries. In this context, a number of priority areas for the realization of this potential were put forward. Among them were the creation of favorable conditions for strengthening and increasing mutual trade through the use of competitive advantages, elimination of existing trade barriers, simplification of technical regulations, digitalization of customs and border procedures.

It was proposed to intensify support for the efforts of the ESCAP Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (CSAM) to promote initiatives to ensure food security. In addition, diversification of transport corridors and adoption of a Roadmap for the digitalization of multimodal exchange of data and documents in the Trans-Caspian transport corridor using UN standards were discussed.

The importance of accelerating the establishment of the UN Multilateral Trust Fund on Human Security for the SPECA region and implementation of the transition to the green economy strategy, development of renewable and hydrogen energy was emphasized separately.

At the end of the meeting, the participants reaffirmed strong mutual commitment to the consistent development of multilateral, open and practical partnerships within SPECA.