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ADB to provide $4.5 mln to foster Central Asia economic development

26 September 2008 14:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said here on Thursday that it will provide 4.5 million U.S. dollars to foster closer cooperation among member countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) by establishing a virtual institute that will coordinate research, training and dialogue within the regional organization.
ADB will provide 4 million U.S. dollars to the project from its technical assistance fund and another 500,000 U.S. dollars from its Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund, a special fund under the Regional Cooperation and Integration Financing Partnership Facility that supports technical assistance projects.
Another 500,000 U.S. dollars will come from the Peopleâ€™s Republic of China Regional Cooperation and Poverty Reduction Fund, while participating governments will provide 200,000 U.S. dollars to complete funding requirement.
"By its virtual nature, the CAREC Institute will not have any permanent location, infrastructure or staff. This approach offers a lot of advantages by making use of existing resources and minimizing fixed investment costs before the institute starts producing tangible results," said Natasha Davis, Regional Cooperation Specialist of the Central and West Asia Department.
The CAREC Institute will further improve regional cooperation by coming up with knowledge resources that meet global standards to support regional infrastructure networks in transportation, trade and energy, ADB said in a press release.
This should help speed up identifying and developing regional projects in the priority areas.
CAREC is an ADB-supported initiative to encourage economic cooperation in Central Asia. Initiated in 1997, the program to date has focused on regional initiatives in transport, trade facilitation, trade policy, and energy critical to improving the economic performance of the region and the livelihoods of all peopleâ€”especially of the poor.