DUSHANBE, December 14, Asia-Plus  -- The first meeting of SPECA (the UN Special Program for Economics of Central Asia) Project Working Group on Trade opened in Dushanbe today morning, according to the Tajik MFA. 

Staged by UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Trade and Investment Division and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the meeting is aiming to consider issues related to increasing the capacity of Central Asian countries to develop regional trade integration and facilitation policies and increase their competitiveness in regional and global markets.

Representatives from SPECA members, as well as representatives UNDP, OSCE, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are participating in the session’s work, according to the source.

A two-day seminar on trade facilitation in SPECA was held in Dushanbe on December 12-13. 

SPECA was launched in 1998 to strengthen sub-regional cooperation in Central Asia and its integration into the world economy. The members of SPECA are Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  It is jointly supported and implemented by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).