The Third Annual Meeting of the IGC TRACECA took place on October 8-10, 2003 in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan. The event was of great significance for TRACECA mainly because it coincided with the fifth anniversary of the First TRACECA Summit in Baku (September 1998), which had made a decision to establish the standing Intergovernmental Commission for the development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia corridor and signed the corresponding Basic Multilateral Agreement (MLA). Besides, in 2003 the TRACECA European Union Programme is going to celebrate its tenth anniversary. Therefore the meeting in Yerevan can be regarded as a jubilee event in the development of the IGC. But The Third Annual Meeting primarily had a business-like and subject purpose. Not only ministers and high-ranking officials from 12 participating countries, but the representatives of the European Commission, other international organizations like UNECE, ECMT, World Bank, EBRD and others attended this Meeting. High ranking officials from Afghanistan and Iran have also taken part in the IGC meeting. They have officially applied to join the MLA. The IGC in its Final Resolution welcomed these countries and expressed its hope that joining the TRACECA corridor would open up opportunities for integration of the European and Asian transport systems. It promotes the development of trade-economic relationships between the East and the West.

At the Annual Meeting the IGC members as full members of the Parties to the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport on Development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Corridor have signed the Protocol on Presentation of Amendments and Additions to the Basic Agreement to adopt a new Technical Annex to the MLA on “International Customs Transit Procedures for the TRACECA transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia for goods transported by railway with SMGS documents”. The IGC TRACECA considered and adopted important project documents in their first reading which would open up new opportunities and create favorable conditions for the TRACECA corridor development. Among them there are drafts of Technical Annexes on multimodal transport and TRACECA investments. The IGC TRACECA Strategy Programme for 2004-2006 was also approved in its first reading. New project proposals of the member countries were accumulated. The Action Plan is to be worked out for the TRACECA Programme for the period until 2006.

The IGC TRACECA has taken an important step on institutionalization of its activities by adoption of the final version of Rules of Procedure and the Statute of the Permanent Secretariat.

Pursuant to the adopted Statute of the Permanent Secretariat at the suggestion of the IGC Chairman, a new Secretary General has been elected. The representative of Bulgaria, Mrs. Lyudmila Trenkova, has become the Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat.

The IGC has adopted the Declaration which besides other significant statements once more confirmed the importance of convocation of the Second TRACECA Summit in the first half of 2004. It is to be expected the official joining of Afghanistan and Iran to the MLA and the adoption of a New Strategy of the IGC TRACECA.