CAREC states pass 10-year strategy at Baku conference
Member states of the Asian Development Bank’s Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program on Wednesday adopted a strategy for the period until 2020 at a conference in Baku joined by their senior officials.
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told a press conference that $50 billion is to be spent on projects to be implemented under the new CAREC strategy. He said the strategy envisions simplification of trade and customs procedures and traffic of the citizens of the CAREC member states, and improvement of living standards. Particularly, regional cooperation under CAREC will allow the countries that have no access to sea to gain it through the territories of adjacent states.
"The simplification of customs procedures is a very important issue, primarily, from the viewpoint of improving relations among countries in the region," he added.
Kuroda said trade among the CAREC countries is expected to surge three-fold by 2017. 27 energy projects are to be implemented as part of CAREC, which accounts for 27 percent of the budget designated for the program.
Over the past decade, the CAREC partnership has developed energy networks and transport corridors worth some $17 billion, connecting member countries to one another and to the booming markets of East and South Asia, Europe and Russia.
Azerbaijani Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev read out a message of greetings from President Ilham Aliyev to the participants at the opening of the 10th ministerial conference. President Aliyev said in the message that CAREC’s strategy will open a new stage of development for the organization. In his opinion, the program can achieve better results in a new phase in its priority areas - transport, trade and energy. In turn, Azerbaijan is ready to expand its collaboration with CAREC and the participating countries, he said.
Since joining CAREC in 2002, Azerbaijan has invested almost $3 billion in related projects.
CAREC comprises Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Six multilateral institutions support the work of CAREC, namely the ADB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank. ADB has served as the CAREC Secretariat since 2001.