ADB head to tour region

The president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Tadao Chino, will begin a nine-day mission to Central Asia on 31 October in Kazakhstan, where he will attend the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC). The ADB president is expected to urge leaders to foster regional cooperation to reduce poverty in the former Soviet republics. "The Central Asian republics are moving into a new era of development. Economic growth in the region is strong and new opportunities are being created in many areas," Chino said before leaving Manila, adding that regional cooperation was one of the most powerful instruments available for achieving accelerated economic growth and reducing poverty in the region. "The objectives of the Ministerial Conference [MC] are to review progress in regional cooperation activities under the overall institutional framework of the CAREC programme since the 2nd MC in November 2003 and provide policy direction and guidance for future activities," an ADB spokesman told IRIN from Manila. Senior representatives from other multilateral institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank are also expected to take part in the event. In early 1997, the ADB initiated its CAREC Programme, which seeks to promote growth and raise living standards in the region by encouraging economic cooperation. The operational strategy of the programme is to finance infrastructure projects and improve the policy environment for promoting cross-border activities in the areas of transport, trade and energy. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, People's Republic of China (primarily Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are the participating countries of CAREC. The ADB head is expected to meet with leaders and senior government officials in five countries - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - to discuss ADB's assistance programmes and highlight the importance of regional cooperation. According to the ADB, over the past seven years, the CAREC programme has achieved some success with five regional projects worth US $224.1 million, technical assistance (TA) grants of $8.7 million in the priority areas and TA grants of $6.1 million for implementing the regional programme - a total of $238.9 million in loans and grants. The ADB's core Central Asia programme for 2004-2006 will continue to focus on energy, transport and trade facilitation. It includes 14 loan projects totalling $295.3 million and 33 TA projects worth a total of $18.5 million, the ADB said in a statement.