DUSHANBE, October 20, Asia-Plus - A Tajik delegation led by Matlukhon Davlatov, State Adviser to the President for Economic Matters, left to Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous District of China, to attend the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation that opened there today.     

The delegation attending the conference consists of representatives from the ministries of economy and trade, transportation, state revenues and tax collections, energy, as well as representatives from president’s executive office. 

The Conference has brought together high-level delegations from Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia to discuss future regional cooperation efforts in Central Asia.  The program is focused on regional initiatives in transport, trade facilitation, trade policy, and energy that are critical to improving the economic performance of the region.

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Dushanbe Office, the conference is considering issues related to regional cooperation in the fields of transport and energy.

Representatives of multilateral institutions, bilateral and other regional organizations, and the private sector also attended a series of meetings including a Business Development Forum that started on October 16. 

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda is expected to make a keynote speech at the Ministerial Conference.

Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) is a broad partnership of the participating countries and six multilateral institutions to promote economic cooperation in Central Asia.

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.

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 is expected to exceed $1.5 billion during 2006-2007.