CAREC Senior Officials' Meeting (April 2004)

The Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held in Almaty on 15-16 April 2004 is the first of two SOMs to be held this year in preparation for the Third Ministerial Conference on CAREC.

Delegations from countries participating in the CAREC Program (Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) as well as representatives of multilateral institutions (Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank) attended the Meeting.

Participants discussed (i) the progress made since the Second Ministerial Conference on CAREC in each of the priority areas of energy, trade facilitation, and transport; (ii) ways of strengthening the overall institutional framework, including the establishment of a sector coordinating committee for trade policy; and (iii) preparations for the Third Ministerial Conference on CAREC scheduled in the fourth quarter of this year.