SPEECH BY H.E. MR. AL? BABACAN, ON THE OCCASION OF THE ...

economy. Once we achieve our set goals, I am confident that the existing figures
will continue rising. In keeping with this, organizing in the near future the BSEC
Business Forum and the Meeting of the Ministers of Trade will surely make
valuable contributions to our trade cooperation, as well.
Esteemed Colleagues,
We have been trying to initiate a thematic approach in the work of BSEC,
in the sense of establishing practical cooperation on certain issues of common
concern or interest such as climate change, achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and combating organized crime. These are areas
where increased cooperation was envisaged in the Istanbul Summit Declaration
as well. We believe that there is ample opportunity in the BSEC region for
active and meaningful cooperation in these spheres, which will consolidate the
culture of multilateralism in our region.
For example, we can have scientific meetings on climate change in the
near future to study its consequences in the BSEC region and take collective
action to tackle the challenges it poses. Likewise, we may conduct a detailed
study on MDGs to see to what extent these goals have been achieved and are
being pursued in our region and establish feasible modalities of cooperation in
areas where Member States have shortcomings.
With regard to combating organized crime, a joint meeting was organized
in Istanbul two weeks ago between BSEC and the relevant UN bodies to fight
human trafficking in the region. This meeting is considered as the contribution
of BSEC to the forthcoming international forum against human trafficking
which will be held in Vienna, in 2008. In the sphere of the fight against
organized crime, training courses and seminars on organized crime investigation