DUSHANBE, November 5, Asia-Plus — The 6th Ministerial Conference may prove to be crucial event for the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program and considerably strengthen its contribution to future regional cooperation, Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced at inauguration of the CAREC ministerial conference in Dushanbe on November 3.
He noted that two wide-ranging initiatives that would strengthen cooperation had been submitted for consideration to the Dushanbe conference — the CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy and the establishment of the CAREC Institute.
“The CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy is aimed at supporting the development of six strategic transport corridors crisscrossing the region and thereby linking the CAREC countries to each other and improving access of these economies to markets in Europe, Russia, Eastern and South Asia,” the ADB president said, adding that the Strategy covers dozens of projects and requires more than $18 billion in vestments for the next decade.
The second initiative is the establishment of the CAREC Institute, which will have two main purposes. The first is to enhance the capabilities of CAREC government officials to engage in regional cooperation processes and to plan and implement regional cooperation projects, while secondly, outlining new approaches to regional challenges based on international best practices, empirical research and policy analysis.
“The Institute will meet widely-recognized demand for stronger potential of regional cooperation,” Mr. Kuroda said, noting that his looking forward for the results from this virtual Institute in the fields of training, survey and spread of information.
