Central Asia’s strategic importance makes it a unique region within
the UNECE area: it plays a significant role in the energy security of Europe
and Asia, it is a potential transport hub between the two continents, and
it is central to the fight against such global security challenges as terrorism,
religious extremism or drug trafficking. Central Asian countries face unique
challenges: they are all landlocked, they are following divergent paths of
economic development and they all face a rapidly growing gap between the income
levels of energy exporting and non-energy exporting States. All face the urgent
task of diversifying their economies and moving away from their present status
of energy and commodity exporters. Strengthening regional cooperation is a
key precondition for the rapid, balanced and sustained economic development
of all the countries of the region. Only through close regional cooperation
can they fully capitalize on their strategic advantages and collectively address
the challenges that can potentially de-stabilize the region.
The United Nations Special Programme for the Economies
of Central Asia (SPECA) addresses the unique needs of its member countries. SPECA was established
in 1998 by the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan joined in 2002 and Afghanistan in 2005. It is supported
jointly by UNECE and UNESCAP. The SPECA Programme has distinct comparative
advantages: it was initiated and established by its member countries; it is
governed by them; it focuses on critical issues of regional cooperation, taking
advantage of international legal instruments, norms, standards and recommendations
of UNECE and UNESCAP; and it combines technical assistance and capacity-building
by the in-house experts of UNECE and UNESCAP with cross-sector, interministerial
policy discussions and regular policy-business-research dialogue. Since all
the major countries of Central Asia are members either of UNECE or UNESCAP,
SPECA provides a neutral forum for the discussion of complex strategic issues
of intra- and interregional cooperation.
Due to these comparative advantages, SPECA has demonstrated an impressive
level of adaptability. In 2004, the United Nations Secretary-General gave
the two regional commissions the task of reinvigorating and strengthening
the Programme. The reform was launched at the International Conference on
Strengthening Subregional Economic Cooperation in Central Asia and the Future
Role of SPECA in May 2005 in Astana, Kazakhstan. The first results are now
becoming visible. The new governing structure (the Governing Council attended
by deputy prime ministers and the Coordinating Committee attended by deputy
foreign ministers) provides for dynamic and effective strategic guidance to
the six Project Working Groups.
The 2005-2007 SPECA Work Plan includes 28 projects/activities in the above
areas. Currently, 14 projects are assured funding of about $4 million. Three
projects with an outlay of about $1 million have been approved for funding
under the fifth tranche of the United Nations Development Account. The activities
of each Project Working Group are supported by the relevant Divisions of UNECE
and UNESCAP in a coordinated and mutually reinforcing way.
The Project Working Group on Transport and Border Crossing focuses
on the development of Euro-Asian transport linkages, including the possible
extension of the TER (railway) and TEM (road) networks into the region. It
plays an active role in preparations for the Mid-Term Review (2008) of the
Almaty Declaration of Land-Locked and Transit Developing Countries.
The Project Working Group on Water and Energy has drafted,
inter alia, the Cooperation Strategy for the Rational and Efficient Use of
Energy and Water Resources in Central Asia (2003) and prepared diagnostic
reports on the energy and water resources of the region. It has played a key
role in establishing cooperation between the Governments of Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan in the management of the Chu and Talas Rivers. It is currently
working on a dam safety project for Central Asia, which is strongly and actively
supported by all SPECA member countries.
The Project Working Group on Trade is engaged in trade
facilitation through the introduction of electronic data corridors based on
UNECE norms, recommendations and standards, as well as capacity-building on
issues related to the WTO accession for Central Asian countries.
The Project Working Group on ICT for Development facilitates
cooperation in initiatives related to knowledge-based economy development.
It has been organizing capacity-building activities in the area of ICT policy
development and supporting initiatives to improve ICT access through Community
Access Points. The Group serves as a forum for ICT policymakers of SPECA member
countries.
The Project Working Group on Statistics, in addition to
general capacity-building activities for the statistical offices of SPECA
member countries, is currently launching projects in areas where there
is an urgent need to improve data collection and analysis, such as labour
migration statistics and statistics related to the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
The Project Working Group on Gender and Economy is about
to launch a project financed by the United Nations Development Account aimed
at developing additional MDG targets for the region in the areas of social
inclusion and the participation of women in the economy.
At the December 2006 meeting of the Coordinating Committee in Dushanbe,
Tajikistan, representatives of member countries demanded better coordination
between SPECA and other regional programmes and organizations, first and foremost
CAREC (Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation programme), a coordination
framework for the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, IMF, EBRD, Inter-American
Development Bank and UNDP. In 2007, UNECE plans to make serious efforts to
establish regular coordination and cooperation between SPECA and CAREC.
The SPECA Economic Forum, organized back-to-back with
the Governing Council, is a venue for strategic discussion and source of
new ideas for the Programme. The 2006 Economic Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan,
addressed the theme “The Energy Dividend: Spreading the growth impulse
for prosperity and stability in the SPECA region”. The 2007 SPECA Economic
Forum will deal with trade and investment links between Central Asia and its
most important partners in Asia and Europe. It will consist of two meetings:
the first, in May 2007 in Almaty, Kazakhstan (“Focus on Asia”),
will be part of the Asia- Pacific Business Forum of UNESCAP. The second, in
November in Berlin (“Focus on Europe”), will be an event jointly
organized with the German Government, which holds the EU Presidency in the
first half of 2007. The Berlin meeting will also offer an opportunity to discuss
practical implementation plans for the new Central Asia Strategy of the EU,
including potential contributions by SPECA. The two meetings are expected
to identify shared or identical interests of the largest economic partners
of Central Asia; the 2008 SPECA Economic Forum may discuss the conclusions
of the previous two conferences in this crucial area.
A further programme of importance in 2007 will be the Partnership for Economics
Education and Research Support (PEERS), currently being established by UNECE,
UNDP, OSCE and the Economics Education and Research Consortium to support
economic research in Central Asia and provide an analytical underpinning for
the activities of the SPECA Project Working Groups.
__________