The U.S. to allocate $15 million to implement five projects in Central Asian countries

Almaty. August 4. Silkroadnews – The U.S. plan to begin implementation of five joint projects in cooperation with Central Asian countries, members of C5+1 format – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, TASS reports.

“The discussion (in C5+1 format held in Samarkand in November 2015) has shown that our relations go beyond the cooperation at the government level, they also include a partnership between American business and economic sectors of all the countries represented here. Today we hope to make further progress using new regional initiatives in the field of counter-terrorism, trade and investment, economic development and clean energy”, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said before talks with foreign ministers of the Central Asia countries mentioned above.

According to him, “to help to implement these efforts the United States will invest $15 million into this initiative to get the projects started as quickly and efficiently as possible”.

As the State Department officials report, one of the directions within this work will be to establish a dialogue with the global anti-terrorism forum to stop movement of members of extremist groups between the countries, as well as to prevent the radicalization of citizens of Central Asian countries. For this purpose, it is planned to involve “representatives of authorities and experts” to discuss methods to counter such a threat using the available expertise.

A separate project is directed to expand the export flow to the region. Here, a significant role is to establish a work with the business sector, as well as with local authorities to build the conditions for freer trade. In this regard the U.S. also plan to contribute to reducing the cost and time of delivery of goods.

Besides, the countries plan to focus their efforts on the development of renewable energy sources. The U.S. are committed to provide “technical assistance” as well as to share their own and international experience in this field. A special attention to be paid to the region’s adaptation to climate changes.