DUSHANBE, November 3, Asia-Plus — The chief task of regional integration is in promoting more weighty positions for participating in world economy in order to develop economy, provide stability and improve living conditions of the population, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon remarked at the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) in Dushanbe on November today morning.
According to him, a staged implementation of initiatives on trade, transport and energy facilitate deepening of interaction of the countries of the region with world markets.
“We consider that CAREC is the program of development of partnership and is an example of cooperation of countries and organizations for providing harmonization of national laws, achievement of actual results and transparency,” the president said.
Rahmon noted that improvement of regional trade and removal of non-commercial barriers will give an opportunity to use potentials of each of the CAREC countries more efficiently.
Addressing the conference, President Rahmon pointed to the necessity of tackling problems of rational use of water and energy resources in the region. According to him, unequal and irrational use of water resources, fluctuating from 1,400 to 4,000 cubic meters per person per year, is to be observed in the region. “Settlement of the issue of rational use of water resources is one of the strategic issues for providing of sustainable development,” the president said, noting that construction of hydropower plants allows saving and delivering water during vegetation period and drought years with simultaneous generation of electrical power on overflowing water.
Dwelling on the issue related to global problems of shortage of water, particularly access to safe drinking water, President Rahmon reiterated readiness of Tajikistan to use reserves of fresh water of the Lake Sarez in interest of the countries of the region.
Tajik head of state also applied to representatives from international financial institutions offering to consider the possibility of providing funds for conducting feasibility study for implementation of this project and consider the possibility of setting up a regional consortium for joint use of waters of the Lake Sarez. He also proposed to hold scientific-practical conference on the Sarez problems in Dushanbe next year.
