KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (NNN-Bernama) — Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has emphasised further development in the transport and energy spheres cooperation among the priorities of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO).
The president in his speech at the 15th Summit of the Leaders of ECO member states in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Sunday, stressed that currently, these partnership segments act as the determining trend of global economic growth.
In this context, the president voiced the need to consolidate joint efforts in this direction and gave examples of the phased implementation of the construction of power transmission lines along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route, railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, as well as the promotion of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
“Turkmenistan pays special attention to the activation of transport and transit communication along the East-West and South-North lines. In particular, we are talking about the creation of transport corridors Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman, as well as Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey,” he said.
The Summit under the chairmanship of Berdimuhamedov was attended and addressed by the heads of State and Government of the ECO member countries, among them Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan is also a member of ECO.
The inputs of the Turkmenistan President’s speech was made available to Bernama on Monday.
In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to study the use of logistics and infrastructure facilities in Turkmenistan itself in order to activate transport and transit communication between the regions of the Caspian Basin and the Black Sea with access to countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
Berdimuhamedov noted the importance of Afghanistan’s participation in these processes, which thus becomes a valuable integral participant in economic partnership.
“We see this as a strategic perspective for Afghanistan, its role in regional and global processes, the most important condition for achieving peace, harmony and development on Afghan soil,” he pointed out.
In his speech, Berdimuhamedov placed special emphasis on further intensification of trade and economic relations between the member countries, aimed at increasing the volume and diversification of trade turnover.
In this context, he highlighted the importance of economic cooperation with the widespread use of digital technologies and electronic trading platforms.
Noting the importance of intensifying cooperation in medicine and healthcare, the President of Turkmenistan noted the needs of establishing systematic channels for the exchange of experience, techniques and best practices in the field of tackling dangerous infectious diseases within the ECO member countries.
He also highlighted the essence of the interaction of the ECO member countries – united geographically and historically, as well as the traditional customs and values.
“Our people have centuries-old traditions here and valuable experience has been accumulated which requires its revival, use and enrichment taking into account modern realities,” Berdimuhamedov said.
The Heads of State and Government of the participating countries, as well as the ECO Secretary-General Khusrav Noziri who spoke during the forum, have emphasised that the current Summit has become an effective platform for making decisions on key aspects of regional economic cooperation.
Following the 15th ECO Summit, a Final document was adopted.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organisation encompassing countries from Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia with a total population of more than 460 million. The overall objective of the 10-member ECO is the sustainable economic development of its member states and the region as a whole.
— NNN-BERNAMA