From Landlocked to Linked In: The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program

Abstract

Transport, trade facilitation, trade policy, and energy became the four priority areas for cooperation in 2006. The benefits are already clear, with people and goods moving more freely through their own and neighboring countries. Increased trade is also creating opportunities that are raising living standards. Transport infrastructure has received the lion’s share of targeted financing since the 2007 introduction of six CAREC road and rail corridors. This over 83,800-kilometer (km) transport network connects markets in the north of the PRC with Azerbaijan in the Caucasus—providing access to Europe—and also stretches from Kazakhstan to Pakistan’s warm-water ports and beyond. CAREC = Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation. But better transport links alone are not enough to realize the CAREC vision. Countries are working together to move people, goods, and vehicles across borders faster, and more efficiently and cheaply. They are securing the energy needed to grow their economies by developing infrastructure and embarking on ambitious plans for mutually beneficial trade in electricity. Regional cooperation is also expanding commercial opportunities by simplifying and liberalizing trading regimes, breaking down policy barriers that were put in place by new nations that formed when the Soviet Union dissolved more than 2 decades ago.