The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $1.725 million in technical assistance for implementation of the second stage of the Implementing the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation 2030 Strategy for Sustainable Regional Development
Report informs via ADB that $1.5 million will be financed on a grant basis by ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund ($800,000 from TASF 7 and $700,000 from TASF-other sources), and $225,000 will be financed on a grant basis by the Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund (RCIF).
The TA will be implemented over 31 months, from May 2024 to December 2026.
The purpose of technical assistance is to strengthen the role of the CAREC program as a platform for regional cooperation to help member countries respond to emerging needs and priorities.
"The CAREC Secretariat faces challenges in meeting increasing demand in the region for financial, technical, and knowledge support. These challenges include managing the expanded scope of CAREC activities under resource constraints; developing sustainable and bankable regional project pipelines that crowd in private sector investment and mobilize financing; strengthening the role of development partners; and measuring, monitoring, and disseminating development results," ADB says.
In this regard, the focus will be on enhancing political dialogue, knowledge sharing and analytical work to support decision-making on CAREC action areas and cross-cutting themes; strengthening institutional coordination and mechanisms for project identification, resource mobilization, and monitoring and evaluation of results; and supporting communications and outreach activities to increase awareness of the program in the region and beyond.
The bank notes that CAREC countries and development partners have made significant progress in implementing the CAREC 2030 strategy in a challenging global environment.
According to the bank, CAREC has prepared sectoral and thematic strategies in traditional areas (transport, energy and trade) and new operational areas (tourism, health, gender and digitalization). CAREC has also developed scoping studies to identify potential regional initiatives in other areas such as education and development skills, water resources, aviation and cross-border community cooperation. Endorsed in 2023, the CAREC Climate Change Framework aims to help countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting regional action on energy transition, decarbonization, innovative finance. solutions, as well as climate-resilient infrastructure and policies.
The project covers all CAREC program participants (Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), except Afghanistan.