Turkic Council plans to create an investment fund to stimulate regional trade
03/06/2020 17:52
Turkic Council plans to create an investment fund to stimulate regional trade
03/06/2020 17:52
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- As part of the ongoing regional cooperation at the current stage, Omer Kocaman, Deputy Secretary General of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, shared his thoughts in an interview with Dunyo.
In particular, he noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 as a public health emergency around the world and, as a result, the socio-economic crisis is a test for international cooperation.
Regional organizations were among the first to ensure the level of multilateral coordination necessary to combat the pandemic and to overcome the crisis as a whole, as evidenced by the demonstration of solidarity in the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states (Turkic Council). Our organization was able to quickly organize cooperation within the framework of the evolving situation with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At present, the Turkic Council has five member states (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan) and an observer state (Hungary), closely cooperates with Turkmenistan at different levels.
After the outbreak of COVID-19, member countries of the Turkic Council quickly advanced in providing each other with the necessary medical and food assistance in bilateral and multilateral formats. The first virtual emergency summit of the heads of state was quickly organized with the participation of the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. After the summit, cooperation efforts between the countries of the Turkic Council received a new impetus in the field of healthcare, transport, economics, trade, customs and migration under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Turkic Council in Istanbul.
In the field of healthcare, our countries decided to start systematic cooperation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of dangerous infections in the future, including through the creation of a new Health Coordination Committee, which will improve the practice of healthcare workers and develop well-equipped hospitals.
Ministers of transport also agreed to coordinate the uninterrupted flow of food, medical supplies and humanitarian aid to maintain supply chains, including by launching the Green Corridor, an international line for transporting essential goods. In this context, additional transit permits and driving visas were issued, while transit fees were reduced, in particular along the Trans-Caspian corridor.
Meanwhile, the ministers of economics of the Turkic Council decided to revise import taxes in order to maintain contactless trade while updating digital trade and e-commerce solutions in response to the crisis. Additional commitments were made to create joint industrial zones, technology parks and trading houses.
The creation of a Turkic investment fund is also on the agenda, which will serve as an important financial instrument to stimulate intra-regional trade.
No less important is the fact that the countries of the Turkic Council decided to create a Migration Coordination Group, as they agreed to mutually facilitate the issuance of visas and residence permits to citizens who were in difficult conditions in the territories of the Member States after closing the quarantine borders.
Although these efforts are expected to yield positive results in the fight against the pandemic, no one will have a lasting peace until the virus is completely destroyed worldwide.
Given the economic implications of COVID-19, an international partnership will also be critical to restore economic growth and create jobs for our citizens. Intergovernmental organizations, such as the Turkic Council, also have a role to play in achieving long-term recovery. This is one of the most important lessons that our relatively young organization and its Secretariat, which were created on the basis of the Nakhchivan agreement 11 years ago, learned from the current struggle against the pandemic, Omer Kojaman emphasized.
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