The President of Uzbekistan took part in the 8th summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States mid November.

By Sher Karimov
The head of state announced Uzbekistan’s full support for the historic decisions to rename the Turkic Council into the Organization of Turkic States and grant Turkmenistan the status of an observer state. It was emphasized that these steps will raise the organization’s activities to a qualitatively new level, significantly increase its role and authority in the international arena.

It was noted that the rapid processes taking place in the world today, various challenges and threats, tests caused by the pandemic, problems of food security, ecology and climate change pose new and urgent tasks for the member states of the organization.

In this regard, the leader of Uzbekistan voiced initiatives aimed at more fully using the enormous potential of cooperation between countries and strengthening the organization.

The main priority is the creation of favorable and attractive conditions for the expansion of trade relations between the countries.

A two-fold increase in the total trade turnover of Uzbekistan with fraternal countries in recent years was especially noted. At the same time, these indicators do not correspond to the existing potential. The analysis shows that in 2020 the total volume of imports of the countries amounted to $420 billion, while the total volume of mutual supplies between the member states amounted to $21 billion.

Therefore, the most urgent task is to replace the products of third countries with goods that can be produced in the member states of the organization.

In order to comprehensively study the existing opportunities in this area, it was proposed to create a center for researching trade cooperation between the Turkic states, which will develop proposals for eliminating trade barriers, the widespread introduction of e-commerce and increasing the volume of exports and imports.

The President called the development of transport and transit an important area of cooperation, which will contribute to the further expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the countries of the organization.

It was noted that the current situation requires further development of existing and creation of new transcontinental transport corridors from China to Europe, passing through the territory of the countries. In order to establish systemic interaction in this direction, it was proposed to develop a “Program of interconnection of the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States in the transport sector”.

The head of state also called for strengthening industrial cooperation. For this, a proposal was voiced to create engineering and technology centers on the basis of specialized organizations of the Member States in order to develop joint projects in this direction. It has been announced that he is ready to hold a week of industry of the Turkic states in Uzbekistan next year.

Considering that the topic of the current summit is “Green technologies and smart cities in the digital age”, the President took the initiative to create a permanent platform of experts and IT specialists to exchange experience and transfer innovations to create smart cities. As a first step in this direction, it is proposed to hold a conference of experts in 2022.

The topic of climate change, mitigation of its impact on the countries of the organization, as well as the problem of drying up of the Aral Sea were touched upon in the speech of the head of Uzbekistan. In order to reduce the negative consequences of environmental disasters and prevent their spread, Shavkat Mirziyoyev came up with an initiative to create, in cooperation with the UN, a structure for the protection of the environment of the Turkic countries, and place its headquarters in one of the Aral Sea regions most affected by this environmental disaster.

The President paid special attention to the topic of tourism development, proposing to develop a “Roadmap” that will allow the implementation of the projects “Tourism in the Turkic World” and “Tabarruk Tourism”, will cover the issues of holding exhibitions of handicrafts and ethno-sports competitions, heritage, as well as contribute to the development of interaction in other areas.

The head of state, expressing gratitude for the decision taken during the summit to establish an international award named after Alisher Navoi, noted the importance of studying and translating rare works stored in the funds of the participating countries, creating a single electronic database. Only in Uzbekistan there is a fund of manuscripts, which includes about 200 thousand unique manuscript works related to the general history and culture. In this regard, it was proposed to create a Research Center for the study of the historical, scientific and cultural heritage of the Turkic-speaking states.

It was emphasized that young people make up the majority of the population of the countries participating in the organization, the role of the young generation in the life and destinies of peoples, the development of relations between countries is increasing. The leader of Uzbekistan noted that one of the main tasks is comprehensive support of young people, encouragement of their creative initiatives and projects, protection from ideas alien to national values.

In this regard, the head of state proposed to declare 2022 in the Turkic world as the “Year of Support for Youth Initiatives”. Within its framework, it is proposed to develop and implement a joint program of specific events, to include this issue on the agenda of the next summit as the main topic.