Minister: Azerbaijan increases trade turnover with SPECA countries

In 2022, Azerbaijan increased the trade turnover with countries included in the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) by 3.6 times year-on-year to $1.3 billion, and in January-October 2023, this figure amounted to $1.2 billion, which is 16% more year-on-year, Economy Minister of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov said at the forum on “Transforming the SPECA region into a global communications hub” as part of the SPECA Week in Baku, Report informs.

The minister emphasized that Azerbaijan has strong friendly and economic ties with the SPECA countries.

According to him, SPECA focuses on promoting regional cooperation: “Azerbaijan serves as a trade hub between East and West for other SPECA countries. We focus on cross-border cooperation,” he noted.

Jabbarov noted that the SPECA countries are actively operating in the Azerbaijani territories liberated from occupation: “Uzbekistan has built a school in these territories. We also highly appreciate the activities of other countries.”

SPECA was founded in 1998. The program's member states are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. The goal of the program is to develop cooperation between member states and support integration into the global economy. This year Azerbaijan is chairing SPECA.