Tashkent, Sep 25, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Government representatives from Central Asia and international organizations today began discussions on the barriers to border trade and trade tax regimes in the region.
The Fifth Trade Policy Coordinating Committee (TPCC) Meeting and Trade Policy Outreach Seminar are being organized over two days by ADB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program.
Attending are government officials from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People's Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; as well as representatives from ADB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IMF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, and GTZ.
During the meeting, the country delegates reported on progress in carrying out recommendations from earlier TPCC meetings to reduce barriers to transit trade. The participants also discussed a study on Trade Taxes by the IMF and the preliminary work on barriers to border trade by Kazakhstan, as well as preparations for a paper on quantities restrictions to trade by ADB. GTZ also made a presentation on trade facilitation.
The participants noted that Central Asian countries need to improve cooperation with each other and neighboring countries to reduce barriers to trade relating, transit, border crossings, customs clearance, and trade tax regimes.
The Meeting participants will produce recommendations for consideration by the next Senior Officials' Meeting and the Fifth Ministerial Conference to be held during 18-20 October 2006 in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.
The TPCC was formed as a result of the April 2004 Senior Officials Meeting to help CAREC member countries adopt more open trade regimes, to promote intra- and interregional trade. IMF takes the lead in organizing the work of the TPCC. The first meeting of the committee was convened on 12 September 2004. It is the first CAREC committee established to focus exclusively on policies, rather than projects.
The Trade Policy Outreach Seminar to follow the meeting aims at increasing the awareness of the analytical work that has been done in and by the TPCC among key decision makers in all CAREC-member countries. It will summarize the work done for the TPCC and the implications of this work for the various countries in CAREC. ADB and the IMF jointly conducted such seminars in China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyz Republic earlier this year.
The seminar will be attended by officials from the Cabinet of Ministers Uzbekistan, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, State Customs Committee, State Tax Committee, Central Bank, as well as National Bank of Uzbekistan and Chamber of Trade and Commerce, academia and international financial institutions.
The CAREC Program is an alliance comprising eight countries - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan - and six multilateral institutions: ADB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IMF, Islamic Development Bank, UNDP, and World Bank.
CAREC aims to promote economic growth and raise living standards by encouraging regional economic cooperation. The program has concentrated on financing infrastructure projects and improving the region's policy environment in the priority areas of transport, energy, trade policy, and trade facilitation. The combined assistance of the multilateral institutions for these sectors is expected to exceed $2.2 billion during 2006-2008.
Contact
Graham Dwyer
Email: gdwyer@adb.org
Tel:+632 632 5253; Mobile: +63 920 938-6487
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