On November 23, Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, took part in the 18th session of the Governing Council of the UN Special Program for Central Asia (SPECA) held in Baku (Azerbaijan).

The event, organized in the year of the 25th anniversary of the Program's establishment, was also attended by the heads of relevant ministries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Hungary, as well as the heads of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

In his welcoming speech, Laziz Kudratov stressed the importance of joint programs implemented within the framework of SPECA in the fields of trade, transport, energy, water resources, innovation and technology, ecology and gender equality, noting the importance of the work done for the development of regional partnership and sustainable development.

The need to intensify cooperation in order to further increase trade turnover between the countries of the region was noted with a particular emphasis on improvement of customs administration, digitalization and expansion of logistics processes, creation of laboratories for standardization and certification, launch of regional e-commerce platforms.

The importance of expanding transport connectivity, the formation of a sustainable regional transit system with the use of a flexible tariff policy was underscored. Support was expressed for the adoption of a Roadmap for digitalization of multimodal data exchange along transport corridors using UN standards.

Deepening cooperation in the field of food security and agriculture, taking measures to prevent food price increases and achieving Sustainable Development Goals was separately noted. In this context, it was proposed to introduce additional incentive measures for the introduction of "green" and "resource-saving" technologies, simplification of the transportation of food cargo and agricultural products.

In a separate order, the urgency of rational use of water resources was emphasized, taking into account the growing burden on existing opportunities. In this direction, special emphasis was placed on the need to take coordinated steps to introduce advanced water-saving technologies, create a unified information system for online data exchange, modernize irrigation systems, develop infrastructure for collecting and storing flood waters, exchange experience in the design, construction and operation of hydraulic structures.

The steps taken in Uzbekistan to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals on poverty reduction, gender equality aimed at ensuring the strength of the family, legal protection and well-being of women were also announced. Today, the share of women in public administration has reached 35%, the share of girls enrolled in universities in 2022 has stood at 49%.

The importance of joint work to improve the Program's effectiveness was noted, in particular, the implementation of the initiative to create a multi-partner Trust Fund under the auspices of the United Nations in order to attract financial support for the implementation of promising projects in SPECA countries.

The session also included an exchange of views on priority issues on the agenda, common positions were developed to further strengthen the interconnectedness and multifaceted cooperation between the countries of the region.

As a result of the event, all participants once again confirmed their readiness to continue working together to achieve their goals, a number of decisions of the SPECA Governing Council were adopted and the Work Plan of the Program for 2024-2025 was approved.