14th ECO Summit

On Thursday, March 4, the 14th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization was held in the format of a video conference.

The event was attended by: the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadir Zhaparov, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and the Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization Hadi Suleymanpour.

During the negotiations, the measures to strengthen joint economic, humanitarian and trade cooperation have been discussed.


It should be noted that Turkish Rönesans Holding starts the construction of its clinics in seven cities of Kazakhstan. Orhun Medical, together with Kazakh National Institute of Oncology and Radiology, plans to launch a Tomotherapy Center in Almaty this year.

The main attention in the speech of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan was paid to overcoming the negative economic consequences of the pandemic.

"Thanks to the implementation of a comprehensive anti-crisis plan, provided with financial resources, Kazakhstan was able to minimize the negative impact of the pandemic and even achieved growth in such areas as construction, agriculture and manufacturing. We expect GDP growth of more than 3% this year, " he said.

The Head of State called cooperation with the ECO one of the priorities of Kazakhstan's foreign policy. In his opinion, major infrastructure and social projects should become the basis for cooperation within th.organization.

"These are good examples of our cooperation. However, we still have a long way to go to ensure sustained progress. This year, we need to ensure that Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway route reaches its full capacity. Other new routes are also being worked out. It is expected that the high-speed railway from Turkestan to Tashkent will increase the tourist potential of both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, reduce travel time to two hours and facilitate communication between businessmen and social contacts between our countries," Kassym - Jomart Tokayev said.
 
The speech also provided information about Kazakhstan's participation in infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. Together with our Russian and Uzbek partners, our country participates in the construction of Mazar-I-Sharif-Quetta and Mazar- I-Sharif-Peshawar railways. Bilateral trade with Afghanistan grew by 55 % last year.

Another important priority for our region is food security.


"We are working on creating a national network of wholesale distribution and logistics centers. Food security and affordability are a common concern, so we believe that combining our efforts to create efficient logistics has great potential. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are creating an international center for trade and economic cooperation on the border," the Head of State stressed.


At the end of his speech, the President made a number of proposals to improve the effectiveness of the Economic Cooperation Organization. According to him, Kazakhstan, as the chairman of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, is ready to assist in the development of cooperation between the ECO and CICMA in the field of economy. Cooperation between these structures is most promising in the areas of transport and logistics, agriculture, finance, energy, tourism, digital technologies, and others.