DUSHANBE, June 14, Asia-Plus — 47 investment projects worth $19 billion will be supported during next ten years through the Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, according to Azeri APA-Economics.
21 projects, which are being implemented presently, will spend $9 billion during the next decade.
Besides, $62 million will go to 62 technical assistance projects within ten years.
According to the ADB Dushanbe Office, the contributions to investment projects in Tajikistan will reach $500 million during this period, and $13.4 billion will go to Kazakhstan, $7.3 billion to China, $700 million to Afghanistan, $600 million to Kyrgyzstan, $100 million to Uzbekistan, $100 million to Mongolia, $2.2 billion to Azerbaijan and $800 million to regional projects.
Three projects are currently being implemented in Tajikistan through CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy: Dushanbe-Kyrgyz border Road Rehabilitation Project; Regional Customs Modernization and Infrastructure Development Project; and Regional Power Interconnection Project (Afghanistan/Tajikistan).
The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated in 1997. CAREC’s goal is to improve living standards and to reduce poverty in CAREC countries through more efficient and effective regional economic cooperation. To date, the Program has focused on financing infrastructure projects and improving the region”s policy environment in the priority areas of: transport; energy; trade policy; and trade facilitation. These areas are critical to improving the region’s economic performance and livelihoods of the people, especially of the poor.
Spanning nearly 4,000 kilometers across Central Asia, the CAREC Program includes 8 countries in the Central Asian region, namely: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
CAREC is a powerful platform to marshal financial resources. The combined assistance of the multilateral institutions in the priority areas of transport, energy and trade during 2006-2008 totals $2.3 billion for 42 projects.
