BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 11. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved the allocation of $1.7 million in technical assistance for the second phase of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Sustainable Regional Development Strategy (SRDS) program until 2030, Trend reports.
According to ADB, $1.5 million will be allocated on a grant basis from ADB's Special Technical Assistance Fund ($800,000 from TASF 7 and $700,000 from other TASF sources), and $225,000 will be allocated from the Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund (RCIF)
A 31-month technical support program will run from May 2024 to December 2026.
The technical assistance intends to strengthen the CAREC program as a regional cooperation platform to enable member nations adapt to new requirements and priorities.
"The CAREC Secretariat must address rising regional demand for financial, technical, and information sharing. The challenges include managing CAREC's scaled-up operations in resource-constrained environments, developing sustainable and profitable regional projects that can attract private sector investment and mobilize financing, strengthening development partners, and measuring, monitoring, and disseminating development results," the information says.
In this context, policy dialogue, knowledge sharing, and analytical work will support decision-making on CAREC's areas of intervention and overlapping themes; institutional coordination and mechanisms for project identification, resource mobilization, and monitoring and evaluation of results; and communication and outreach activities to raise program awareness within and outside the region.
Additionally, it is emphasized that CAREC countries, together with development partners, have made significant progress in implementing the CAREC 2030 strategy in today's challenging global environment.
"CAREC created sector and topic strategies for transport, energy, trade, tourism, health, gender, and digitalization. Additionally, scoping studies identified regional initiatives in education and skills development, water resources, aviation, and cross-border collaboration. In 2023, CAREC approved its Climate Change Vision to help countries reach Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. Promoting regional energy transition, decarbonization, creative finance, and climate-resilient infrastructure and policy achieves this," ADB's information added.
To note, the project covers all CAREC program includes Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
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