The 2nd CAREC Think Tank Development Forum closed in Xinjiang

About 60 participants including famous economists, experts in trade, traffic and energy, high-ranking government officials and think tank representatives were invited to discuss important regional issues and possibilities to establish a regional network of think tanks on September 7 in Urumqi, Xinjiang.

In the same day, the Inter-governmental Agreement Establishing signing of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Institute (CI) marked its officially launching. First started as a virtual establishment in 2009, CI settled headquarter in Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2015.

The two-day forum was co-hosted by CI and ADB-PRC Regional Knowledge Sharing Initiative (RSKI) addressed major opportunities and challenges that think tanks in CAREC region are facing and stressed on promoting regional cooperation in transport, energy, trade facilitation, and other key sectors of mutual interest to the CAREC member countries.

The CI member countries have a great deal of learning from each other on development practices and policy lessons, and such learning is particularly useful since they face similar challenges and circumstances. In the process, think tanks play a critical role in sharing knowledge and practices as many are involved in supporting governments in preparing medium and long-term development plans and making policy recommendations to address emerging policy issues.

The first CAREC Think Tank Development Forum was held in Kazakhstan on 20-21 June 2016, and one of the most important consensuses reached is that CAREC region think tanks need to conduct more exchanges of views and contribute to regional economic development closely.

Headquartered in Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Institute was officially inaugurated on September 7. The CAREC Institute (CI) aims to enhance the quality of the CAREC program through knowledge generation and capacity building for effective regional cooperation towards the goal of accelerating economic growth in the CAREC region.