In Baku, during SPECA week, the United Nations programme for Central Asian countries, the Member States signed new agreements to develop better international connections between Asia and Europe.
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00:00 Baku welcomed participants to SPECA week, a special UN program designed for the countries of Central Asia.
00:11 This year marks the program's 25th anniversary. For the first time, a summit of leaders from SPECA states was organized.
00:20 The main topic? Transforming the region into a connectivity hub with global outreach.
00:26 Sustainable transport, trade and energy are among the key areas of work for SPECA, which was established in 1998 to facilitate the integration of participating countries into the world economy
00:42 and to become a platform for communication aimed at achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
00:48 SPECA unites five Central Asian countries along with Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and two UN agencies.
00:56 This summit supported the creation of the SPECA Multi-Partner Trust Fund under the auspices of the UN.
01:02 Azerbaijan, which is the chair of SPECA this year, will provide 3.5 million dollars to this fund.
01:08 How is the SPECA program important for the economies of the participating countries?
01:17 This program is based on the economic interaction between Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
01:23 Today we see the new dimension of that interaction.
01:27 During the last two years, active interaction between Azerbaijan and all the Central Asian countries and also between Central Asian countries is unprecedented level high.
01:39 This really is a new reality and we need to capitalize on that.
01:45 We have excellent relations with all countries of SPECA.
01:49 We have a lot of investment projects now, Azerbaijan investments in Central Asia, Central Asian investments in Azerbaijan.
01:57 We have connectivity projects of East-West Trans-Caspian transportation route, which for Central Asian countries is now one of the most attractive transportation connection
02:13 with Black Sea, with Mediterranean and with Europe through the integrated connectivity projects.
02:22 And we see a lot of positive dynamics on the political track.
02:28 The Baku Declaration adopted at the summit emphasized a strong political willingness to jointly capitalize on the region's vast economic potential.
02:39 According to estimates, our countries have a potential to reach $100 billion by 2030.
02:51 The SPECA Economic Forum, which took place ahead of the summit, discussed how the region can become a connectivity hub between Europe and Asia.
03:06 It's one of the platforms which brings together one of the biggest regions of the landlocked countries in the world.
03:12 As landlocked countries, we have to cooperate, increase our trans-border cooperation, facilitate our trade to be able to increase our integration to the world economy.
03:23 Improving the logistics capacity and performance index of trade corridors is crucial for SPECA landlocked countries.
03:31 We see a big role for digital solutions in making sure that goods can pass through corridor between Europe and Asia much faster.
03:41 It is about adopting UN norms and standards in how member states clear customs, how trade documentation is exchanged.
03:51 It's about making sure that the different parts of the ecosystem, the traders, the customs authorities, the government officials can use similar approaches, can use one language literally.
04:02 And this is what we are focusing on from the UN side.
04:06 The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route took center stage at the forum.
04:13 This multilateral, multimodal corridor connects China and Europe, passing through the region via ferry terminals, rail systems and roads across various countries.
04:23 To enhance the middle corridor's efficiency, a roadmap for the digitalization of multimodal data and document exchange in accordance with UN standards and documents was endorsed in Baku.
04:36 The idea is to harmonize the digitalization along the whole supply chain using the UN standards.
04:44 The UN semantic standards and reference data models so the data can flow seamlessly along the whole supply chain moving from one mode of transfer to another, from one sector of the supply chain to another.
04:58 The buzzword in all that is interoperability.
05:04 This is a multimodal route that we are trying to develop now, because demand for it has increased significantly.
05:12 All the recommendations and solutions that SPECA offers will be used in the middle corridor.
05:19 We expect a multi-application effect that will increase the flow rate in our corridor significantly.
05:29 How SPECA can become a region of interconnected energy systems moving towards lower carbon energy sources was another major topic of discussions in Baku.
05:39 We are really encouraging member states to scale their renewable energy resources, to integrate them in their energy mix through low and zero carbon technology interplay,
05:49 to strengthen the capacity of the grid to absorb the additional renewable energy capacity, because this will help the region to achieve its resiliency and achieve net zero.
06:01 UN agencies are working with SPECA states to develop tools and design energy policies to achieve resilient and carbon neutral energy systems.
06:12 Euronews asked the President of Kazakhstan how his country sees the net zero transformation.
06:19 We are quite serious about the decarbonization of our economy and generally about the diversification of our economy,
06:28 making impetus on developing non-carbon sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan.
06:33 Which is quite a challenge as far as I understand.
06:36 Yes, it's a challenge. It needs to make a huge change in our mindsets, first of all.
06:41 But I do acknowledge that it's a general trend in the economic development of the whole world.
06:48 And Kazakhstan is not going to lag behind of this trend.
06:51 At the same time, we are very much committed to the protection of the environment.
06:57 Yes, Kazakhstan still is a country which relies on coal and its energy balance.
07:04 But I think that in the nearest future the whole situation will be changing quite positively.
07:11 The region's energy potential is huge.
07:15 SPECA states are working to diversify energy transit routes to global markets.
07:20 Energy resources are distributed unevenly. To ensure the energy security of the countries, there is an objective need to cooperate with each other.
07:34 The SPECA program is making a significant contribution to the establishment of this cooperation, harmonization of rules and regulations, support for the implementation of various infrastructural projects.
07:47 Climate change and lack of water resources are among the region's crucial issues.
07:52 SPECA can no doubt play an important role in addressing these challenges.
07:56 challenges.
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