Welcome by the Secretary General

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

Let me welcome you on behalf of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA.

The Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA is a stable platform for rapprochement of the interests and search of optimal solutions to establish mutually beneficial cooperation, as well as decision framing with the view of injecting a new dynamism into further development of TRACECA and close relations among its participants.

Guided by the Basic Multilateral Agreement (MLA), the Strategy of the IGC TRACECA for 2016-2026 and the Statute of the Permanent Secretariat of the IGC TRACECA I consider that one of my duties as Secretary General consists in carrying out effective monitoring and providing assistance to the countries in the realization of the adopted policy documents of the IGC TRACECA:

- Roadmap for the development of international transport within the corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia for the 5-year period,
- Plan of Measures for the increase of competitiveness and attractiveness of international road traffic, 
- TRACECA Regional Action Strategy on Maritime Safety and Security and Environmental Protection for the period up to 2021.  

Within the Programme of Action all efforts will be directed towards further achievement of tasks and objectives of the IGC TRACECA in view of its coordinating role in the region, institutional strengthening of relationships, dialogue and cooperation between the IGC TRACECA and the European Commission for improvement of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia corridor, further extension of the organization due to new member states in the East-West direction.
 
At the same time, I consider it important to invigorate together with all interested Parties, including international organizations, carrying out the research, the analysis of the realized measures included, and to promote the development of projects of corresponding updated recommendations.

Among main dimensions of revitalizing the corridor development dynamics we should highlight the following ones:
 
  - Containerization. By maximum cooperation and synchronization of TRACECA activities with the interested parties in the development of infrastructure and extension of the routes, further increase of containers flow along the TRACECA corridor, formation of optimal tariffs within the route;
  - Investment. Attraction of investments to the development of the corridor, especially to the projects aimed at eliminating the bottlenecks using partnership mechanism;
  - Uniform requirements. Further harmonization of transport legislation, elimination of excessive requirements, large-scale application of electronic multilateral permits for the passage, implementation of a common multimodal traffic document;
 - Competences and ambitions. Electronic trade, pilotless transport, cargo tracking systems and others – these are all new challenges to be met;
 - Simply and fast. Crossing the borders should be like that. 

Today the world community realizes the importance of the development of international transport corridors based on integration processes. 

We will yearn to maximally develop the possibilities of TRACECA, infrastructure, attract transit flows, implement digital technologies in the field of transport, invigorate multimodal traffic since it is important to visualize the international transport corridor - profitable, safe and reliable satisfying the demands in the XXI century.

Asset Assavbayev
Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA