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Senior Officials' Meeting on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation

A Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was convened in Manila, Philippines, on 8-9 September 2007. The SOM was characterized by open and detailed discussion focused on

• draft sector strategies for transport and trade facilitation
• sector updates for energy and trade policy
• a draft prospectus for the CAREC Institute
• preparations for the 6th Ministerial Conference (MC) planned for November 2007 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

The SOM was chaired by Negmatjon Buriev, Senior Advisor to the President on Economic Policy, Tajikistan, and co-chaired by Xianbin Yao, Deputy Director General, Central and West Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB). Read the Summary of Proceedings [ PDF: 43kb | 7 pages ] | . SOM papers and presentations can be accessed through the interactive agenda.

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The main objective of the SOM was endorsement of the draft CAREC Transport Sector Strategy [ PDF: 5,334kb | 61 pages ] | (TSS), the draft CAREC Trade Facilitation Strategy [ PDF: 328kb | 22 pages ] | (TFS), and the draft CAREC Institute Prospectus [ PDF: 1,279kb | 48 pages ]. The SOM endorsed these three documents and recommended that the TSS and TFS be integrated into a single CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy. The SOM recommended that the integrated strategy and the CAREC Institute Prospectus be submitted for endorsement to the 6th MC.

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Delegations were present from the eight CAREC participating countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of China (PRC), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. A representative of Turkmenistan attended as an observer. Representatives from the six partner multilateral institutions (MIs)—Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and World Bank—contributed to the proceedings.