On 16 June, 2009 in the Kyrgyz Republic (Cholpon-Ata, Issyk-Kul) there was held the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA.

The meeting was attended by the official representatives of the Parties Governments of the “Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport on Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor” (MLA), the Permanent Representatives (National Secretaries) of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) IGC TRACECA in the MLA member-states, the representatives of the European Commission and international organizations.

A report on the implementation of the Decisions of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the IGC TRACECA was made by the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. Azat Bekturov on behalf of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Party presiding in the IGC TRACECA.

At the meeting the chairmanship in the IGC TRACECA was delegated to the Kyrgyz Republic, in the person of the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Nurlan Sulaymanov. He assured that Kyrgyzstan would continue intensive activities on the development of the international transport corridor “Europe-the Caucasus-Asia”.

At the opening session of the IGC TRACECA Mr. Jonathan Scheele, the Director of the General Directorate for Transport and Energy of the European Commission pointed out that the TRACECA corridor was one of the main connecting links in the international transport communication promoting traffic between Europe and Asia, therefore much significance had to be attached to the institutional strengthening of TRACECA.

At the Conference the heads of the delegations from the MLA TRACECA member states made the reports on the implementation of the IGC decisions on the development of the corridor. The official representatives of the international organizations – Regional Advisor for Transport of the UNECE, Mrs. Martin-Sophie Fouvez, Deputy Co-ordinator of OSCE, Mr. Aleksey Stukalo, and the Secretary General of OSCE, Mr. Khurshid Anwar emphasized the activities of the MLA member states and their coordination with international organizations in the development of the corridor “Europe-the Caucasus-Asia”.

Summing up the results of the Conference the participants noted the significance of the outcomes of the Seventh Meeting of the IGC TRACECA. Particularly, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed the Agreement on the Development of Multi-Modal Transport TRACECA, its legal status determining the content of the multimodal transport and the responsibility of its participants. The Parties signing this Agreement took into account a key role of multi-modal transport and freight forwarding services in the development of the TRACECA corridor. Besides, this Agreement will allow further improvement of the legal basis for efficient development of the transport corridor connecting Europe, the Caucasus and Asia. Other TRACECA member states emphasized the necessity of completing corresponding national procedures for signing or acceding to this Agreement. At the same time the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania as the EU members emphasized the necessity of additional consultations with the European Commission.

Within the framework of the Conference the Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA, Mr. Rustan Jenalinov and the Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Mr. Khurshid Anwar signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the PS IGC TRACECA and ECO. During the meeting Mr. Rustan Jenalinov signed on behalf of the IGC TRACECA the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed earlier (on 25 May, 2009, Bangkok) on behalf of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, by the Under-Secretary-General of the UNO, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Mrs. Noeleen Heyzer. The implementation of these memoranda provisions will contribute to the coordination of the activities and strengthening of cooperation between the international organizations.

At the meeting the TRACECA member states according to the analysis of the corridor made a decision on the necessity of defining common competitive tariffs and creating favourable conditions for development of international transport on the TRACECA corridor with a view to attract additional traffic flows.

The participants to the Conference welcomed the accession of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the TRACECA MLA and invited the interested states to join this Agreement.

The status of observer in the IGC was granted to the Republic of Lithuania which would allow this state to be involved in the future in the activities of the IGC TRACECA as an observer.

At the end of the Seventh IGC Meeting there were held the elections of a new Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA which resulted in the election of   Mr. Zhantoro Satybaldyev as a candidate from Kyrgyzstan for the period of presidency of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Under the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Republic in the IGC TRACECA the activity on the development of the international corridor “Europe-the Caucasus-Asia” will be developed and the corresponding reforms will be carried out in view of a new role of the IGC in respect of the development of the EU South-Eastern Axis and integration of the TRACECA corridor into the Trans-European Transport Networks.