Acting Minister to the Ministry of Transport Attends the First Meeting of Central Asia-South Asia Transport Cooperation in Tashkent Uzbekistan

Acting Minister of Transport and Head of Afghan Railway Authority Mohammed Yama Shams attended the first meeting of Central Asia-South Asia Transport Cooperation which was attended by senior officials of the Ministries of Transport of Tajikistan, Pakistan, World Bank and ADB representatives and hosted by Uzbekistan in the Tashkent.

The meeting focused on the connecting the Central Asia to South Asia through Afghanistan by rail, land, air transport, increased transfers, and greater coordination among CASA member countries.

The geo-strategic and geo-economics position of Afghanistan gives it the importance of a bridge between South Asia, Central Asia, China and European countries. This program would provide Afghanistan with access to regional and global markets as well as increasing the level of transit income and employment.

Connecting Central Asia with South Asia through Afghanistan creates employment and stability in the region and can play a significant role in reducing poverty and removing security tensions and challenges.

At the Casa meeting in Tashkent, after an extensive discussions among the participants on defining goals, consolidating organizational structure, future plans it was decided to create a High Council consisting of Ministers of Transport of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan to establish technical groups to work in the field of land, air, customs, borders, commercial and transit transport in coordination with the CASA Program Secretary and the World Bank.

 In addition, it was decided that the technical groups from the member countries along with their focal points has to be determined before scheduling the next meeting in 2020.