The delegation of Turkmenistan took part in the SPECA 2024 Economic Forum and the 19th session of the SPECA Governing Council

From November 26 to 28, 2024, as part of the SPECA 2024 Days, the Economic Forum of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia-SPECA 2024 on the theme "Green Development in the SPECA region", as well as the Nineteenth session of the SPECA Governing Council, were held in Dushanbe.

The forum and the session were attended by representatives of the Governments of the Member States, UN agencies and programmes, relevant international and regional organizations, international financial institutions, as well as the private sector, academia and civil society.

The Turkmen side was represented by the delegation of Turkmenistan headed by Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy B.Yalakov.

The agenda of the current forum includes issues of "green" economic development of the SPECA member states, in particular, an exchange of views in such areas as water and energy security and climate change, transport, "smart" trade, innovations and technologies for sustainable development and gender equality.

Speaking at the forum, the Turkmen side outlined Turkmenistan's positions on a number of key issues. In particular, it was noted that the development of a "green economy", the use of new environmentally acceptable technologies and the development of innovative solutions in the environmental field are priority vectors of the country's state policy.

Important directions for ensuring the dynamic and sustainable development of the national economy, environmental protection, rational use of natural resources, careful attitude to the richest flora and fauna of the country for future generations of Turkmen citizens are the development of renewable energy sources, and above all, solar and wind.

At the same time, it was said that in the National Strategy of Turkmenistan on Climate Change, one of the mitigation directives is the development of measures to reduce methane emissions from the production, transportation and distribution of natural gas. Last year, the country joined the Global Methane Commitment during the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 28) in Dubai.

As it was emphasized, important tasks in the medium term for Turkmenistan and the SPECA region as a whole are: reducing methane emissions, switching to the use of solar and wind energy, the possibility of producing green hydrogen, implementing measures to improve energy efficiency and energy conservation, the possibility of producing biomass energy, informing the population about the benefits of using renewable energy sources, including including conducting an information campaign in the media.

In the speech of the Turkmen side at the Nineteenth session of the SPECA Governing Council, the need to strengthen cooperation between countries within the WTO was stated, due to the fact that trade facilitation in the SPECA region is among the priority issues of cooperation.

In addition, during the session of the Nineteenth session of the SPECA Governing Council, the issue of Turkmenistan's chairmanship in SPECA in 2025, the preparation of an appropriate Concept and Action Plan were considered.

According to the results of the SPECA 2024 Economic Forum, a Final document was adopted.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan