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Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC)

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Sunday, 25 March

Monday, 26 March

08:30-09:00	Registration, ADB Headquarters, Auditorium Zone C
09:00-09:20      09:00-09:10      09:10-09:20	Opening Session Welcome remarks by Negmatjon Buriev, Senior Advisor to the President on Economic Policy, Tajikistan Opening remarks and introduction of the Agenda by Xianbin Yao, Deputy Director General, Central and West Asia Department (CWRD), ADB
09:20-09:50	Special Presentation “Central Asian Regional Integration: Interests of Partner States and Prospects for Cooperation” [ PDF: 256kb | 4pages ] by Johannes Linn, CAREC Special Advisor
09:50-12:30      09:50-10:10      10:10-10:30      10:30-12:00      12:00- 12:30	Session 1: Program Update, Sector Strategies, and Strategic Direction Program Update and Sector Strategies: Purpose, Timeframe, and Options by Robert Siy, Director, Country Coordination and Regional Cooperation Division, CWRD (20 min.) Tea Break Sector Updates and Sector Strategies (10 min. each) Energy: Raghuveer Sharma, Lead Financial Analyst, Infrastructure Department, Europe and Central Asia Region, World Bank Paper [ PDF: 143kb | 5pages ] Presentation [ PDF: 1,733kb | 23pages ] Trade facilitation: Barry Hitchcock, Director, Regional Cooperation, Governance, and Finance Division, East Asia Department, ADB Paper [ PDF: 169kb | 13pages ] Presentation [ PDF: 72kb | 11pages ] Trade policy: Sena Eken, Assistant Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund Paper [ PDF: 389kb | 6pages ] Transport: Sean O’Sullivan, Director, Infrastructure Division, CWRD, ADB Paper [ PDF: 198kb | 10pages ] Working with the Central and South Asia Transport and Trade Forum (CSATTF) [ PDF: 1,962kb | 22pages ] by Saifullah Abid, CAREC Advisor for Afghanistan (15 min.) Discussion (35 min.) Making the SOM and Ministerial Conference More Strategic by David Husband, CAREC Senior Advisor Paper [ PDF: 387kb | 6pages ] Presentation [ PDF: 955kb | 14pages ] Presentation (15 min.) and Discussion (15 min.)
12:30-14:00	Lunch (Hosted by Vice-President Liqun Jin, ADB)
14:00-16:20      14:00-14:40      14:40-15:00      15:00-15:20      15:20-16:20	Session 2: Establishing the CAREC Institute (Presentation and discussion) Breaking Ground by David Kruger, Senior Regional Cooperation Specialist, CWRD, ADB (20 min.) Formulating a CAREC capacity development program Initiating a small research grants program and network of research institutes Developing a policy briefs series Outreach activities Paper [ PDF: 139kb | 5pages ] Presentation [ PDF: 59kb | 15pages ] Inputs, Ideas, Discussion (20 min.) Launching the CAREC Institute by Negmatjon Buriev, Tajikistan (20 min.) Paper [ PDF: 386kb | 6pages ] Presentation [ PDF: 53kb | 11pages ] Tea Break Launching the CAREC Institute (continued) (Discussion led by Johannes Linn, CAREC Special Advisor)
16:20-17:30	Session 3: Developing the Second Tier Roundtable Discussion: Developing the Second Tier Chaired by Annette Dixon, Regional Director, World Bank Paper [ PDF: 334kb | 10pages ] Ongoing Activities and Options Presented [ PDF: 46kb | 9pages ] by Nadir Safaev, CAREC Senior Advisor for Uzbekistan (20 min.) Open discussion (50 min.)
18:45	Dinner hosted by Asian Development Bank, Garden Ballroom, Edsa Shangri-La Hotel (Hosted by Juan Miranda, Director General, CWRD, and Halady Satish Rao, Director General, East Asia Department)

Tuesday, 27 March

09:00-09:20	Session 4: Special Presentation Special Presentation on Turkmenistan [ PDF: 1,368kb | 23pages ] Tuvakmammet Japarov, First Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Turkmenistan
09:20-11:00      09:20-10:00      10:00-10:20      10:20-11:00	Session 5: New Relationships New Participants, New Partners [ PDF: 172kb | 11pages ] Aziz Aliev, CAREC Advisor for Kyrgyz Republic (15 min.) Interest expressed by countries to join Interest expressed by multilaterals/bilaterals/others to interact/join Options for inclusion presented and considered Discussion (25 min.) Tea Break Engaging other Regional Initiatives [ PDF: 239kb | 7pages ] Haoliang Xu, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Designate in Kazakhstan (15 min.) CAP urges engagement How to engage Eurasian Economic Community and Shanghai Cooperation Organization? Types of cooperation; potential areas for cooperation Discussion (25 min.)
11:00-11:30	Session 6: Messages and Arrangements for the 6th Ministerial Conference Proposed key messages and organizational arrangements for the 6th Ministerial Conference by Negmatjon Buriev Discussion
11:30-12:30	Session 7: The Way Forward: Strategic Issues Consideration of Strategic Issues by Xianbin Yao, ADB Discussion
12:30-14:00	Lunch (Hosted by Vice-President Lawrence Greenwood, ADB)
14:00-14:15	Session 8: Summary of MI Working Group Retreat Presentation by Sena Eken, IMF
14:15-16:00	Session 8: Country Views and Discussion Country statements (10 min. each): Afghanistan Azerbaijan People’s Republic of China Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic Mongolia Tajikistan Uzbekistan Discussion (25 min.)
16:00-17:00	Tea Break
17:00-18:00      17:00-17:50      17:50-18:00	Session 10: Closing Session Review of Summary of Discussions: Craig Steffensen, Head, CAREC Unit, ADB Closing remarks