On May 16-17, 2018 in Ashgabat in the conference hall of the “Grand Turkmen” hotel the 1st meeting of the Regional Working Group for the development of the "Program of Action to Assist the Countries of the Aral Sea Basin" (ASBP-4) and "Improvement of Institutional-Legal mechanisms" was organized by the Executive Committee of IFAS with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and with the support of the Regional Program "Transboundary Water Resources Management in Central Asia" GIZ and the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC).
Representatives of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, scientists and specialists from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, experts of the regional program GIZ "Transboundary Water Resources Management in Central Asia" and the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia participated in the meeting.
By decision of the Board meeting of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, held on January 30, 2018 in Ashgabat, the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea together with the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination and the Interstate Commission for Sustainable Development, with the involvement of national experts and international partners, was responsible for ensuring the development of ASBM-4.
The development of ASBP-4 is planned to be carried out in the following main areas: integrated use of water resources, ecological direction, socio-economic direction, improvement of institutional and legal mechanisms.
The meeting discussed the issues of the formation of the Regional and National Working Groups on the development of ASBP-4, the goals, objectives, the main directions and structures of the document, the criteria for selecting projects. In addition, the issues of improving the organizational structure and the legal framework of IFAS, the formation of projects, as well as the goals, objectives, main directions and structure of ASBP-4 had been discussed.
The parties agreed to continue work on the preparation of the above documents.
