China and Tajikistan have continued to deepen cooperation since they established
3.2 CAREC, BRI and the ADB
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subregional program by mentioning the Azerbaijan Railway Sector Development Program as the only highlighted project in 2017, with two loans committed that worth USD400 million.37 The project represents the significant ambition of CAREC to facilitate Central Asia and Europe’s connectivity through the corridors. The next section will include even more examples of how the high-level officials promote the ADB-BRI cooperation through CAREC.
3.2 CAREC, BRI and the ADB
Then ADB President Nakao, Vice President Zhang (2013-2018), and the current Vice President Chen Shixin (2019-present) had been present in crucial events for advancing the importance of CAREC and deepening its collaboration with BRI. Those events include the 2015 launching of the physical CAREC Institute based in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, PRC, the 2017 inaugural ceremony of the CAREC Institute (the CAREC Institute Intergovernmental Agreement Effectiveness Celebration), the 2017 Central Asian Economies’ Shared Prosperity: CAREC 2030 Strategy Session of the 10th Astana Economic Forum, the 2018 CAREC High-Level Session on New Opportunities for Regional Cooperation: The Potential of CAREC–BRI Collaboration at the 51st ADB Annual Meeting, the signing of the CAREC Transport Strategy 2030 at the 18th CAREC Ministerial Conference in Uzbekistan, and the CAREC First Capital Market Regulators Forum in 2019.
The statements they made for these occasions not only call for wider collaboration in scope and more collaboration in quantity, but also elevate the level of this program to economic and political.
For the CAREC Institute, Vice President Zhang mentioned the need for a physical facility for the CAREC Institute and pledged on ADBs behalf to continue being its long time major partner as the Institute ‘grows to be a key knowledge hub in the region.’38 President Nakao
37 ibid.
38 Asian Development Bank. (2015, March 2). Statement by ADB Vice-President Wencai Zhang at the Launching of the
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praised the choice of the Institute’s location in Urumqi, Xinjiang, as the city is of ‘tremendous historical significance’ and ‘a center for industrial and commercial activities for China and the broader CAREC region.’39 The fact that there is now an “intergovernmental research organization” based in a Chinese city that neighbors Central Asian and South Asian countries gives China a stronghold for information collecting and regional activity monitoring.
For BRI and CAREC collaboration, Zhang also reiterated the CAREC’s resolve to build
‘effective linkages and synergy with other regional cooperation frameworks and mechanisms’
since ‘a synergistic approach between CAREC and other existing regional cooperation frameworks to address the large development needs of the region can be tremendously beneficial for all member countries of CAREC.’40 Not surprisingly, he highlighted the MoU signed between China’s Ministry of Finance and six MDBs (including ADB) for the BRI collaboration in a sense of making it a model example of how other regional cooperation frameworks should proceed to formalize their cooperation with CAREC. Terms such as
“improving connectivity”, “shared prosperity”, “resilient and sustainable regional infrastructure”, “trade links”, and “economic opportunity” 41 circulated through those statements, building up public impression on the mechanisms and parties involved.
CAREC also seeks influence beyond infrastructure by promoting certain values and standards on national and regional policies in specific sectors such as transportation and financing. The CAREC Transport Strategy 2030 signed in November 2019 is said by the ADB to promote good practice and an integrated regional policy that lower ‘non-physical trade and
CAREC Institute. https://www.adb.org/news/speeches/statement-adb-vice-president-wencai-zhang-launching-carec-institute
39 Asian Development Bank. (2018, February 23). CAREC Institute Intergovernmental Agreement Effectiveness Celebration. https://www.adb.org/news/speeches/carec-institute-celebration-takehiko-nakao
40 Asian Development Bank. (2018, February 23). Opening Remarks at the 10th Astana Economic Forum – Wencai Zhang. https://www.adb.org/news/speeches/remarks-10th-astana-economic-forum-wencai-zhang
41 Asian Development Bank. (2018, May 8). ADB Seminar Furthers Potential of Broader CAREC-BRI Collaboration.
https://www.adb.org/news/adb-seminar-furthers-potential-broader-carec-bri-collaboration
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logistics barriers’.42 Vice President Chen Shixin commented that the 2030 Strategy ‘outlines a roadmap toward a future in which the CAREC transport system is better able to meet the objectives of regional connectivity, as well as economic, social, and environmental sustainability.’43 What’s more, a new high-level officials meeting on capital market development, the first CAREC Capital Market Regulators Forum in 2019, has set the direction of mobilizing private sector resources and building related policies in the near future. Chen pointed out that it is critical that the CAREC region mobilize private sector funds through capital markets and long-term institutional resources.44
With the CAREC Institute jointly funded by the PRC and ADB,45 and the ongoing promotion of the scope and linkages of CAREC content much aligning with the BRI, this thesis considers it viable to see CAREC as the ASEAN of Central Asia, which in both intergovernmental organizations, China seeks to play a major role in taking the mandate beyond its original setting. Written clearly in an official ADB blog post by Zhang Wencai in 2017, ‘CAREC is a platform for its member countries to conduct dialogue on policies and actions’ and the long-term goal for CAREC is to ‘move beyond transport corridors into trade corridors and ultimately to economic corridors that involve many countries and sectors.’46 He also sees CAREC as the platform for countries in the region to launch initiatives that support the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Most importantly, once again, to
42 Asian Development Bank. (2019, November 14). New Regional Transport Strategy to Drive Sustainable Development for CAREC Region. https://www.adb.org/news/new-regional-transport-strategy-drive-sustainable-development-carec-region
43 Asian Development Bank. (2019, November 14). New Regional Transport Strategy to Drive Sustainable Development for CAREC Region. https://www.adb.org/news/new-regional-transport-strategy-drive-sustainable-development-carec-region
44 Asian Development Bank. (2019, August 29). Inaugural Forum Aims to Improve Capital Markets Development in CAREC. https://www.adb.org/news/inaugural-forum-aims-improve-capital-markets-development-carec
45 Asian Development Bank. (2021, January 7). Supporting the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute.
https://www.adb.org/projects/52370-001/main#project-pds
46 Wencai Zhang. (2017, July 31). A sneak peek at CAREC’s new strategy. Asian Development Bank.
https://blogs.adb.org/blog/sneak-peek-carec-s-new-strategy
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synchronize regional cooperation frameworks and mechanisms including but not limited to the BRI, which he described is created to pursue ‘peace and cooperation, open and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit’47 during the CAREC High-Level Session on New Opportunities for Regional Cooperation: The Potential of CAREC–BRI Collaboration.
With all the examples shown above, this chapter reaches the conclusion that China has been highly utilizing the mechanisms in the ADB to advance its national development agenda and seeks to maintain and further expand its centrality in the ADB and the region. The following figure collects the discussion points in this chapter and is organized based on the spectrum of institutional choices provided by Ikenberry and Lim, however leaving out the “Opposition”
category in the original figure, with the same reason mentioned in the previous chapter.
Figure 4.3 China's institutional choices in the ADB
Source: Organized by the author with reference to G. John Ikenberry, Darren Lim, D. 2017,
‘China’s emerging institutional statecraft: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the prospects for counter-hegemony’, Brookings Institution, Project on International Order and Strategy, April
47 Asian Development Bank. (2018, May 3). Opening Remarks at the CAREC High-Level Session on New Opportunities for Regional Cooperation – Wencai Zhang. https://www.adb.org/news/speeches/carec-new-opportunities-regional-cooperation-wencai-zhang