On February 17, 2023, a Workshop of the Official Economic Policy Research Centers on Economic Cooperation and Integration in the Turkic World, organized by the Turkic Academy together with the Secretariat of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), began its work in Astana.
The expert meeting scheduled for two days will be devoted to considering ways of strengthening economic cooperation among the Turkic countries. During the meeting, the participants will exchange views on the possibility of collaboration between official economic policy research centers. In addition, the participants will share their ideas and suggestions regarding implementing the "Turkic World Vision - 2040" adopted by the Heads of the State of the Organization of Turkic States in 2021. The opening ceremony of the event was attended by the President of the Turkic Academy Shahin Mustafayev, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Tumysh, member of the Council of Elders of the OTS, former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Hasan Hasanov, Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Kairat Sarybay, Head of the Center for Legal and Political Studies of the National Institute of Strategic Studies under the Presidency of the Kyrgyz Republic Avtandil Arabaev, Deputy General Director of the General Directorate of Trade Research and Risk Assessment under the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye Raif Can, Chief Adviser of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) of Hungary Laszlo Vasa, Senior Specialist of the Center for Economic Research and Reforms under the Administration of the Presidency of Uzbekistan Fazliddin Nasriddinov, as well as ambassadors of fraternal countries to Kazakhstan. After the opening ceremony, the workshop will continue in two thematic sections. In the section " National development priorities of Turkic countries, "experts will present reports on the development plans of the national economies of the Turkic countries for the next five years. As part of the next section, "Collaboration of Turkic economic policy research centers," the participants will consider ways of cooperation among experts from fraternal countries and discuss issues of establishing a network of interaction among economic policy research centers. The expert meeting will continue on February 18. As a result of the meeting, it is expected to adopt a protocol for cooperation among research centers specializing in the study of economic policy. It is worth noting that one of the turning points of the efforts to integrate the Turkic states was the Summit of Heads of State held in Baku in 2019. At that summit, the Member States decided to further deepen their cooperation towards gradual sectoral integration. An important turning point in Turkic cooperation was the summit of Heads of State held in Istanbul in 2021, at which a document entitled "Turkic World Vision – 2040" (Vision 2040) was adopted and, thus, paved the way for systematic work on the integration of Turkic countries with clearly defined long-term goals. The 9th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, held in Samarkand in 2022, further strengthened this positive momentum, and adopted the Strategy of the Organization of Turkic States for 2022-2026, marking the first step towards the realization of the "Vision – 2040".
