Azerbaijan, Baku, November 23 / Trend, N. Ismailova /
At the sidelines of a ministerial conference of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) in Baku on Wednesday, there was approved the CAREC-2020 Strategy, which is the platform for the deepening of regional cooperation on the basis of the one achieved in the first decade of CAREC operation, Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) told a press conference on Wednesday.
"Over the past decade, $17 billion were invested under the CAREC. CAREC-2020 contains priority projects worth a total of $50 billion, which need to be implemented for the completion of six transport corridors, the increase of energy security, and the provision of development of the existing economic corridors," Kuroda noted.
CAREC-2020 envisions simplification of trade and customs procedures and traffic of the population of CAREC member states, and improvement of living standards. Particularly, regional cooperation under the CAREC will allow countries having no output to sea to get such access through the territories of adjacent countries, the ADB President said.
"The simplification of customs procedures is a very important issue, primarily, from the point of improvement of relations amongst countries of the region," he added.
Samir Veliyev, Head of the Office of the Economic Development Ministry of Azerbaijan, said Azerbaijan takes an active part in the implementation of the CAREC Program and has been providing assistance to fields such as trade, development of energy and transport corridors, and regional cooperation over the recent decade.
"These works will go on in the next decade; however, it is also essential to convert transport corridors into economic ones," Veliyev said.
New projects, currently not covered by the program, can further be included in it, he added.
