Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 5
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
The first Caspian Economic Forum, to be held in Turkmenistan’s Avaza tourist zone on August 12, will give an additional impetus to the cooperation in the region, Trend reports referring to Foreign Policy and Diplomacy of Turkmenistan’ magazine, citing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying.
“The issue is the cooperation in such spheres as trade, investments and tourism, which will also help turn the Caspian Sea into one of the world's biggest transport and transit hubs,” the diplomat said.
In his interview with the magazine, Lavrov stressed that solving of the problem of economic development of the Caspian region on a rational and mutually beneficial basis is of particular relevance after the signing of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in August 2018.
"It is obvious that the document meets the interests of all Caspian countries not only because its provisions clearly define their mutual rights and obligations to use the Caspian Sea, the measures to strengthen confidence and security in this region of the world as a whole,” he added. “The value of this international agreement is that it creates the necessary legal conditions for accelerating the cooperation in the trade, investment and transport sectors."
Lavrov also drew attention to the fact that in the current circumstances there is need of creating a specialized platform for direct contacts between the governments, ministries of economy and business structures interested in working in the Caspian Sea.
“In this regard, the idea of regularly holding the Caspian Economic Forum, put forward by Turkmenistan, turned out to be very timely,” he said. “This proposal was indicated in the five-sided intergovernmental agreement on trade and economic cooperation, signed a year ago at the same time with the convention and in the communiqué adopted at the presidents ’meeting following the Fifth Caspian Summit.”
“It is great that the agenda of the Forum includes a wide range of issues to intensify the trade and economic ties, improve the investment climate, expand practical cooperation in the fields of industry, transport, innovations and science,” he added.
“Russia attaches great importance to this event,” he said. “The level of the Russian delegation, headed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, testifies to this.”
The agenda includes the creation of conditions for big projects, the discussion about the role of the economy of the Caspian region in a global context, investment attractiveness in the oil and gas, power, transport, trade, agro-industrial, tourism and other sectors of the economies of the Caspian countries which are of mutual interest, according to the website of the Organizing Committee of the forum.
The prospects of joint investment projects and programs will be discussed at the event.
On the eve of the forum, a meeting of ministers of the competent bodies of the parties responsible for the implementation of agreements between the governments of the Caspian countries on trade and economic cooperation and cooperation in the field of transport will be held.
In parallel, the draft Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the Business Council of the Caspian countries will be discussed.
Besides the delegations of the Caspian countries, representatives of interested countries close to the Caspian region, leaders and representatives of international economic, financial, transport, environmental and other organizations have been invited to the forum.
The forum consists of three parts, namely, an international conference, an exhibition of innovative technologies and a legal part (the signing of contracts, agreements, contracts).
Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news