Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation - CAREC
Updated: 4 May 2008
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:
These areas are critical to improving the region’s economic performance and livelihoods of the people, especially of the poor.
Spanning nearly 4,000 kilometres across Central Asia, the CAREC Program includes 8 countries in the Central Asia region, namely:
In addition, invitations to participate are under consideration by Turkmenistan and Russian Federation.
CAREC is also an alliance of multilateral institutions active in promoting economic cooperation in Central Asia. CAREC is also an alliance of multilateral institutions comprising
Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and World Bank. ADB’s CAREC Unit (CARECU) has served as the Program Secretariat since March 2000.
CAREC operates in partnership with other key regional cooperation programs and institutions, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community.
CAREC indeed represents a true, robust development partnership; a concrete example of countries and institutions cooperating; one which also achieves the ideals set out in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness – namely: ownership, harmonization, alignment, results and mutual accountability.
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.
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