President of Kazakhstan shares his vision of IFAS development
Dushanbe, The Gulf Observer: Taking the floor at the meeting of the Council of the Heads of State – Founders of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), President of Kazakhstan Kassym-jomart Tokayev shared his vision of the Organization’s further development, according to the reports of Akorda.
According to him, the first important issue is soonest completion of the modernization of the IFAS’ organizational structure and regulatory-legal framework. The Head of State proposed to broaden the mandate and liabilities of the management board and executive committee of the Fund, as well as to transform the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination into the Interstate Water and Energy Commission. In his words, these measures will enable to raise effectiveness of the IFAS.
The second issue, as the Kazakh Leader stated, is creation of a long-term and sustainable development mechanism of cooperation for effective use of water and energy resources of Central Asia with the consideration of the interests of all countries of the region in irrigation, hydro-energy and ecology. «The International Water and Energy Consortium could become such a mechanism,» said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Third, the Kazakh President proposed to craft an action plan on implementation of a single automated system of recording, monitoring, management and distribution of water resources in the Aral Sea basin.
In his words, the implementation of this initiative will ensure transparency of water use process in the region and will promote the dialogue and friendship between the Central Asian states.
«Another important initiative is to set up a project office of the Central Asian states for climate-related issues. This step will let us proceed to the development of effective measures on mitigation of climate change consequences. We positively view involvement of Bishkek in the activity of the Working Group on improvement of the IFAS. We hope for resumption of the Kyrgyz Republic’s full-fledged membership in the IFAS. We will be pleased to hand over the chairmanship in the IFAS to fraternal Kyrgyzstan,» Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
