The leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) have officially established the Turkic Investment Fund and appointed Baghdad Amreyev, the bloc's former secretary general, as its president, a statement said Saturday.
The special decision was signed at the ninth summit of the OTS in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Friday.
"The Turkic Investment Fund will be the first and main joint financial institution established by the Turkic states and aims to mobilize the economic potential of member states of the Organization of Turkic States to strengthen the trade and economic cooperation between them and to implement joint projects," according to the statement.
The fund "will mainly support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by providing them finance through the fund's assets as well as other competent financial institutions."
It aims at supporting the areas of agriculture, logistics and transport, energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy, industrial projects in manufacturing, information and communication technologies, tourism, infrastructure projects, public-private partnership projects, human development, creative industries, and natural and urban environment schemes.
Meanwhile, Kubanychbek Omuraliev, Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to Türkiye, was appointed as the organization's new secretary-general.
There will be a handover ceremony at the group's headquarters in Istanbul on Monday, where Omuraliev will take over the post from his predecessor Amreyev.
The OTS is an interstate bloc, established with the aim of expanding cooperation between Turkic-speaking countries in the fields of politics, economics, science, education, transport and tourism.
Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan. EU country Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) have observer status.
Members of the OTS should develop a common security concept and increase their cooperation when it comes to preventing and managing irregular migration, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Speaking at the ninth OTS leaders' summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Erdoğan said: "We are going through a sensitive period that bears opportunities as well as risks for our countries. During this period, it has become more critical to strengthen our cooperation, solidarity and harmony in all fields."
"Since 2014, Türkiye has been the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world. We believe it would be beneficial to expand cooperation in the prevention and management of irregular migration. Within this scope, it would be on target to develop a common security concept and continue security council secretary meetings."
He added that it would be beneficial for the organization to implement the Turkish Investment Fund "as soon as possible."
"It would be beneficial to implement the Turkish Investment Fund as soon as possible. I believe that the financial opportunities provided by the fund will strengthen our cooperation and accelerate our activities," Erdoğan said.
Türkiye led the summit of Central Asian countries, aiming to strengthen economic ties with the region's resource-rich ex-Soviet states while Moscow is distracted by the war in Ukraine.
Erdoğan presided over the OTS summit in Uzbekistan's historic city of Samarkand.