Turkmenistan may join CAREC railway project

By  Trend

At the meeting of the Turkmen government, a proposal was made to join the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmenistan State News Agency.

The possibility of connecting Turkmenistan to the regional technical assistance project "Railway Sector Development in Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Countries" was discussed at the meeting.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that the CAREC Program is the most important mechanism for promoting economic regional cooperation, especially in such areas as transport, energy and trade.

Turkmenistan’s cooperation on this platform is of a strategic nature, the Turkmen president emphasized.

It was also noted that participation in the proposed project will have a positive impact on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the strengthening of partnership relations between the participating states of the program.

The CAREC program is being developed at the initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in partnership with the UN Development Program, the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The main objective of this program is to assist in the implementation of investment projects in the field of transport, trade and energy, aimed at accelerated socio-economic development of the states of the region of Central Asia.

The potential of Turkmenistan in the logistics of transit flows should be assessed taking into account the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran transnational railway line, the Kerki-Ymamnazar (Turkmenistan) -Akina (Afghanistan) railway, the first line of the Asian International Transport Corridor, the railway and road bridges across the Amu Darya, modern airports in Ashgabat, Turkmenbashi and Turkmenabat cities.