RECCA VII: economic integration of Afghanistan – guarantee of stability in the region
November 14, 2017 | 23:46 |376
Eziz OVEZOV
Today, the 7th Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation in Afghanistan (RECCA VII) started its work in the capital's Yyldyz hotel. In total, about 250 delegates took part in the event. Among them are high-ranking leaders, representatives of various international organizations and financial institutions from 36 countries.
The purpose of the meeting was discussion and planning of actions on the integration of Afghanistan into the regional and international political economic space, as well as involving stakeholders in cooperation in the region.
The central themes of the first day of the Conference were interstate cooperation in the field of energy and natural resources, transport and infrastructure, trade and investment.
The RECCA VII agenda includes three new projects developed this year for the economic development of Afghanistan and the region. The first project concerns the empowerment and creation of opportunities for women in economic cooperation and development.
"This project is one of the most important," said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Adela Raz during the plenary session.
- It will expand the opportunities of women entrepreneurs, both in the region and in the world as a whole, help create a network that will connect them with each other to identify strengths and weaknesses, open access to global markets.
The second project is aimed at the formation of the RECCA Chamber of Commerce, which will enable to create joint interstate enterprises in the region, and will strengthen the partnership of the neighboring countries.
This promising structure, which in other countries has allowed them to achieve significant success, will accelerate the process of Afghanistan's integration into the economic space of the region, eliminate trade barriers through establishing a constructive dialogue with foreign business structures.
The third RECCA project is aimed at fostering a scientific dialogue in the region that will expand the capacity of institutions in Central and South Asia. It should also help Afghan scientists integrate into the global scientific and information space, thereby realizing their potential, concealed because of the lack of social structures capable of providing a platform for exchange of experience and networking.
The listed projects will be discussed and supplemented during the thematic sessions of the conference. Considered in the course of the discussion, the experts' opinions will help to maximize the potential of the programs, documents on which will be signed on November 15th.
According to experts who participated in today's conference, thanks to the gradual stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan, the country is becoming an important political and economic partner in the region. An obvious example is the mutually beneficial cooperation with Turkmenistan.
The Turkmen-Afghan political and economic dialogue can be called a model of successful interaction, which proves the possibility of building beneficial and promising relations with Afghanistan. The joint work of the neighbors made it possible not only to stabilize the situation on most of the Afghan territory, but also becomes a real factor in the sustainable development of the entire region.
Today, Turkmenistan consistently implements a number of major socio-economic projects in Afghanistan, including the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway, as well as power transmission lines to Afghanistan.
According to the participants of the conference, the consistent implementation of these projects, as well as the economic integration of Afghanistan into international projects, will contribute to the further strengthening of the social and economic component of the states of the region, which is a guarantee of stability and security.
