14th ECO Summit
05.03.2021
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. At the beginning of his speech, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed gratitude to the fraternal Turkish people and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the assistance provided to our country in the pandemic response. As the Head of State stressed, "these difficult times, our countries have once again become convinced of the importance of mutual assistance and support at the global level." 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. One of the most promising projects is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which is being formed jointly with China. In particular, in November 2019, a container train was launched on the route Xi'an-Istanbul-Prague, connecting Kazakhstan, China, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In April last year, the first container train passed on the route Xi'an-Izmir. It covered a distance of about 7,000 km in 16 days. 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. The President stressed that Kazakhstan supports all ECO initiatives in the field of agriculture, and called on the member states to join the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS), which is headquartered in Nur-Sultan. "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. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also spoke about the potential of the tourism sector, which, despite the pandemic, remains one of the promising areas of cooperation. "Kazakhstan intends to increase the share of the tourism industry to 8 % of GDP by 2025. We are actively developing the sacred city of Turkestan for the countries of Central Asia and the entire Turkic world. In 2020 alone, domestic investment in urban infrastructure, tourism and logistics in Turkestan amounted to about $ 1 billion. Turkestan has entered the TOP 10 tourist destinations in Kazakhstan, which can become attractive for investors and tourists from your countries, " the President said. 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.
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