Azerbaijan, Baku, 31 January / Trend corr. I.Khalilova / The Asian Development Bank (ADB) mission has begun its visit to Azerbaijan for consultation with the Azerbaijani Government to hold events within the framework of CAREC (Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation), the Baku representative of the Bank reported.
The visit is scheduled for 3 and 4 February. The delegation unites Robert Siy, the director of Regional Cooperation Department, and David Kruger, chief specialist on regional cooperation.
In 2008, two meetings of the high ranking officials of CAREC member-participants are expected.
Additionally, work meetings on the key sectors of CAREC will be implemented. The Economic Development Ministry is the coordinating body of Azerbaijan on CAREC program, and Siy will hold consultations with its officials.
CAREC is a partnership involving eight countries ( Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and six international financial institutions (Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, UNDP, World Bank and Islamic Development Bank).
The CAREC program focuses on financing the infrastructure projects and improving the region's policy in priority areas such as transport, energy, trade policy and trade facilitation. The program is directed at financing infrastructural projects and improving the regional policy in transport, trade assistance, goods policy and energy spheres. The six partnership international organizations of CAREC are planning to allocate over 40 loans to member-countries in the sum of $2.3bln to support regional investments in priority spheres from 2006 to 2008.