May 31, 2017, Odesa, the first meeting on the establishment of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association was held in the framework of the International Week on Trade and Transport.
The representatives of the private sector and state enterprises, including maritime and rail carriers and business associations attended the meeting. Mr M. Titarchuk, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and Mr A. Danyleiko, Head of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, participated also in the meeting.
Business representatives from Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as Mr I. Petrov, Vice-President of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), took part in the meeting. This meeting was held in pursuance of the solutions taken during the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the GUAM Member States and the recommendations of the Business Forum «GUAM – Territory of Free Trade and Transit» (March 27, 2017 in Kyiv).
The meeting with a welcoming speech was opened by Mr A. Efendiyev, the GUAM Secretary General, and Mr V. Shchelkunov, the Chairman of ICC Ukraine. The GUAM Secretary General and the Chairman of the ICC informed the participants about the meeting’s results of the Prime Ministers of the GUAM Member States and the GUAM Business Forum, the goals and objectives of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association. Participants of the meeting highly appreciated the results of the above-mentioned events and exchanged views on the establishment of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association. Following the meeting, the Protocol and the Memorandum on the establishment of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association were adopted. The participants appealed to the GUAM Secretariat and ICC Ukraine with the request to prepare draft constituent documents for their subsequent approval at the next meeting on the establishment of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association. To implement the agreements and coordinate the provisions of the Memorandum, the meeting participants agreed to identify the responsible staff and forward their contacts to the GUAM Secretariat and ICC Ukraine.
It was agreed that coordination functions will be assigned to the GUAM Secretariat and ICC Ukraine prior to the adoption of the constituent documents of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association.
At the end of the meeting, it was announced that the accession process to the GUAM Business Cooperation Association had been opened by completing the accession form, and it was requested to forward these forms to the Secretariat and ICC Ukraine.
It was agreed that the Constituent Assembly on the establishment of the GUAM Business Cooperation Association would be convened as soon as the drafts of constituent documents of the Association were finalized and approved.
