DUSHANBE, December 11, Asia-Plus - Issues related to simplification and development of trade between member nations of the UN Special Program for Economics of Central Asia (SPECA) are major topics of a regional seminar that will be held in Dushanbe on December 12, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT). 

A source at a MoEDT said that the seminar will also consider issues of the SPECA members’ jointing the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

“Besides, the fourth two-day session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will open in Dushanbe on December 13,” the source said, noting that the SPECA seminar participants will attend this session as well. 

Participants in the SPECA seminar and the 4 ^th session of ESCAP are also scheduled to meet with the First Deputy Prime Minister Asadullo Ghulomov.  

SPECA was launched in 1998 to strengthen sub-regional cooperation in Central Asia and its integration into the world economy. The members of SPECA are Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  It is jointly supported and implemented by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. With a membership of 62 Governments, 58 of which are in the region, and a geographical scope that stretches from Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south, ESCAP is the most comprehensive of the United Nations five regional commissions. It is also the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region with over 600 staff.