Bishkek (TDI): Happening back to back with the 24th Ministerial Conference, the two-day Business Forum of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program has convened in the Grand Ballroom of Sheraton Hotel in Kyrgyzstan.
Around 150 government officials, private sector leaders and companies, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors, development partners, industry experts, and academia have come together to unpack the potential of CAREC’s Transport Corridors, to unlock public-private partnerships, enable B2B and B2G matching, and foster regional policy dialogue.
In his opening address, Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Economy and Commerce, Bakyt Sydykov, highlighted Central Asia as an unavoidable economic corridor connecting global markets.
“Today, we live in a period of deep transformation of global supply chains, increasing importance of multimodal routes, and the growing role of Central Asia as a strategic space between the world’s largest markets,” the Minister said.
As the host of the CBF and the following Ministerial Conference on November 20th, the second day of the Forum is dedicated to spotlighting Kyrgyzstan and its regional economic and connectivity potential.
The Ministerial Conference is the highest decision-making forum of the CAREC Program to review policies and approve regional investment projects.
CAREC – a partnership of 11 countries and multilateral development institutions under the auspices of the Asian Development Bank, aims to foster regional collaboration among member governments, the private sector, investors, and development partners through its flagship business forum initiative.
Representing the ADB, the Vice-President of South, Central and West Asia, Yingming Yang, made the welcome remarks at the Forum.
After these keynote speeches, the first session of the day formally started with a context setting, moderated by the Regional Head of Regional Cooperation and Integration at CWRD, ADB, Lyaziza Sabyrova.
Bahodir Ganiev, the Senior Advisor at the Center for Economic Development of Uzbekistan, was the lead speaker in this session, and gave a detailed presentation on “Economic Potential of CAREC Corridors.”
The panelists of the session highlighted the global supply chain trends, sustainable and resilient regional connectivity, and the current state of digitalization and smart mobility along CAREC Corridors.
After a group photo and coffee break, the participants returned to the second session of the day titled “Fostering Regional Connectivity: Innovative Approaches and Solutions.” Moderated by the Senior Director Transport at ADB, Hiroaki Yamaguchi, this session included five panelists.
The panel addressed the question of policy improvements for seamless regional connectivity, bridging the infrastructure gaps along CAREC corridors, climate-induced risks, and digital infrastructure and transformative technological solutions that can facilitate efficient trade and logistics in the CAREC region.
This session was followed by presentations of regional and global success stories and a third session on “Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Development and Regional Connectivity.”
To compliment the third session, projects undertaken through public-private partnerships along the CAREC corridor were showcased.
The final session of the day, Integrating the Private Sector into Regional Value Chains, spread over two sub-topics and ended into another success stories display focusing on local companies’ participation in CAREC projects.
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