Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program
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The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program is an Asian Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...

 (ADB) supported initiative which was established in 1997 to encourage economic cooperation among countries in the Central Asian region. In particular, cooperation among the ADB member states of,
  • Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

  • Azerbaijan
    Azerbaijan
    Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

  • People's Republic of China
    People's Republic of China
    China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

     (focusing on Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region)
  • Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

  • Kyrgyz Republic
  • Mongolia
    Mongolia
    Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

  • Tajikistan
    Tajikistan
    Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

  • Uzbekistan
    Uzbekistan
    Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

  • Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...


The CAREC program has focused to date on financing infrastructure projects and improving the region's policy environment in the priority areas of transport (especially road transport), energy (including the water-energy nexus), trade policy, and trade facilitation (especially customs cooperation). As of 31 December 2004, the ADB had approved seven regional investment projects totaling $275.1 million, mobilized cofinancing of $135.2 million for three of these projects, and approved 22 technical assistance grants totaling $12.9 million. In 2005-2006, investment projects totaling $247 million and technical assistance grants are planned totaling $12.3 million.

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Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation - CAREC

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: (i)transport, (ii) energy, (iii) trade policy, and (iv) trade facilitation. 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: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People's Republic of China (focusing on Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. 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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