Central Asia loses $4.5 bln annually due to lack of interagency cooperation on water issues

Tashkent, July 8, 2019. /Kabar/. Central Asia loses $ 4.5 billion annually due to lack of interagency cooperation on water issues, Shahzod Akhmedov, the Manager of the Cluster of Innovation and Scientific Research on Water Management said at the first regional ministerial conference on green economy in Tashkent.
He said that Central Asia has the potential to develop a green economy, but at the same time there are problems with attracting investment.
"There are great opportunities for investment in the region, also for the Green Climate Fund. But there are problems that create many barriers on the way. Investors are not sure about investing in a region where there are no conditions," Manager Akhmedov said.
"Green economy and investment issues are a complex process. It requires interaction between participants and dialogue. We know that the global green economy process has intensified already in 2010-2011, but the introduction in Central Asia is slow. When we talk about the Green Climate Fund, we see that Central Asia receives less investment than other regions," he said.
Another reason for the lack of investment and slow development of the green economy is the lack of cooperation between the agencies of the region.
"The key resource in the region is water. It is transboundary in nature and is regulated by different national authorities. Water has a regional scale. Benefits could have been gained thanks to working together. We have conducted a study and came to the conclusion that CA loses USD 4.5 billion annually due to insufficient interaction in the water sector," the speaker said.