Azernews.Az

BAKU – The potential for trading in Central Asia among the regional countries that have no access to the open sea has not yet been used in full, speakers at a conference being held in Baku have said.

Addressing the meeting on Wednesday, devoted to promoting trade and held as part of UN’s SPECA program on assisting Central Asian economies, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economic Development Niyazi Safarov said that experts who say trade among the SPECA member states is below desired level believe that relevant regulations should be simplified to boost regional trade.

The Baku meeting is attended by government officials from all SPECA members - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, as well as experts from a number of international organizations.

Andrey Vasilyev, Deputy Executive Secretary of UN’s European Economic Commission (UNECE), cited the need for bringing into compliance trade laws of the countries participating in the SPECA program. He said complicated trade procedures remain in place among the former Soviet republics.

"In carrying out trade transactions, every country depends on other countries, in particular neighboring states. In conducting such transactions, registration of documents at customs and border checkpoints takes a long time in most cases. This period is even much longer than the time spent on transporting goods, which certainly causes delays."

Vasilyev said customs and trade procedures should be therefore simplified and red tape obstacles removed.

According to him, on the second day of the conference, projects worth millions of dollars will be presented in an effort to boost trade among the SPECA member states.

The United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) was launched in 1998 to strengthen subregional cooperation in Central Asia and its integration into the world economy.