On November 16, 2021, the Sixteenth Session of the SPECA (United Nations Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia) Working Group on Trade was held in Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan). All Central Asian countries participate in this program.
The 2021 Economic Forum of the SPECA countries (Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) is dedicated to progress in the development of sustainable trade and transport in the region.
During the meeting, the issue of the implementation of the SPECA Sustainable Trade Principles in national and sectoral strategies for achieving the SDGs and the progress of their implementation was discussed.
Nurlan Kulbatyrov, Deputy General Director of QazTrade JSC of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted that Kazakhstan was one of the first in the region to conduct a self-assessment of compliance with SPECA principles.
In particular, the first principle of SPECA should be noted – “Include trade in national and sectoral strategies to achieve the SDGs, and also include the relevant SDGs in trade development strategies”. Kazakhstan this year, within the framework of reforming the state planning system, decided that the entire hierarchy of State planning system (CST) documents should comply with the principles of the SDGs.
Nurlan Kulbatyrov noted that based on the results of the analysis of the twenty principles of sustainable trade in SPECA, experts came to the conclusion that today most of the established principles are being fully implemented by Kazakhstan and implemented at the national level.
In addition, the meeting participants were provided with information on the implementation of the UNESCAP project on assessing readiness for cross-border paperless trade in Kazakhstan, which is carried out by QazTrade JSC with the support of UNESCAP experts.