On 12th August 2019, the First Caspian Economic Forum took place in Turkmenistan's resort town of Awaza near western port city of Turkmenbashi

Besides the delegations of the Caspian countries, representatives of interested countries close to the Caspian region, heads and representatives of the international economic, financial, transport, including Mr. Mircea Ciopraga, Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA and other organizations have been invited to the forum.

The Forum has meant to become a permanent platform of multilateral economic dialog for future collaboration in the Caspian region.

The agenda and main objective of the forum included the issues of the international conference entitled "Caspian Sea: benefits of developing international economic cooperation": the creation of conditions for big projects, discussion on the role of the economy of the Caspian region in a global context, investment attractiveness in the oil and gas, power, transport, trade, agro-industrial, tourism and other sectors of the economy of the Caspian countries of mutual interest.

Within the framework of the Conference, among the speakers, Mr. Ciopraga stated that the Caspian Sea is an important strategic region with great economic, energy and transport potential.  Sea shipping is performed along the “East-West” (ITC TRACECA) and “North-South” transport-transit corridors within its water area. The strategic significance of the Caspian Sea in the regional and interregional geopolitical and geo-economic processes, its role as a considerable transit-transport and logistical hub necessitate further joining of efforts of the Caspian littoral states. 

“We believe that international cooperation based on solid legal standards, mutual understanding and respect for the interests of the Caspian countries is of great importance for these countries”, Secretary General noted.

Mr. Ciopraga emphasized that the First Caspian Economic Forum should become an important link in the process of implementation of the agreements and further consolidation of cooperation on the Caspian Sea. It is obvious that the Conference will become an effective platform for the support of joint initiatives aimed at the development of trade-economic relations and cooperation in the field of strengthening transport communications in the region of the Caspian basin and the routes of the revived Great Silk Road.

“Being an internal sea of five states the Caspian Sea can be called the sea of friendship by right. The peoples of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and, naturally – of Turkmenistan live in harmony on its coasts. According to our data the transhipment of cargo in the ports of the Caspian region in 2018 made in total more than 33 million tons of various cargo, including around 28 million tons – in the TRACECA ports, but this is not the limit of the region’s possibilities. 

The development of cooperation with the countries of the Caspian region is one of the priority vectors of our activity. Therefore, we welcome fruitful cooperation of your countries in the “Caspian five” format. Within this context I would like to emphasize the importance of the agreements adopted earlier, namely the Agreement among the Governments of the Caspian Littoral States on Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Agreement between the Governments of the Caspian Littoral States on Cooperation in the field of Transport”, Mr. Ciopraga stressed.

It should be mentioned, that the forum consisted of three parts, namely, an international conference, an exhibition of innovative technologies and the legal part (signing of treaties, agreements and contracts).