Publications

The report presents results of the 2021 United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation for ten CAREC members. It presents a detailed analysis based on 58 trade facilitation measures which are classified into four groups ("General Trade Facilitation," "Digital Trade Facilitation," "Sustainable Trade Facilitation," and "Other Trade Facilitation") and further 11 subgroups covering both binding and non-binding WTO TFA measures and measures beyond the scope of WTO TFA+.

The new QEM writes that CAREC members are recovering relatively quickly from the deep recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. GDP levels were 2.8% higher in the first and 2.2% higher in the second quarter of 2021 at constant prices than in the corresponding periods of 2019.

This issue gives details of the 11th Governing Council meeting, 2021 Visiting Fellow Program finalists, also provides links to the Institute’s 2021 knowledge products and media coverage.

Our research on the impact of COVID-19 on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan looks at how MSMEs coped with the pandemic to explore lessons for policymakers in the CAREC region.

This research commenced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to review the status of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in four selected CAREC countries, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to explore best practices and solutions in the WASH sector and enhance resilience of countries with fragile infrastructure and poor capacity to cope with future natural or manmade disasters in the long term.

This issue announces the findings of the third CAREC Quarterly Economic Monitor, provides details of several webinars on Eura-Asian integration processes, also webinars on promoting regional cooperation among different cooperation frameworks. A joint webinar with China City Development Alliance on optimizing trade and e-commerce is also featured.

Our third CAREC Quarterly Economic Monitor shows that an average CAREC region real GDP growth finally turned positive in the first quarter of 2021, after negative growth rates throughout 2020. The recovery was especially strong in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Countries with a high share of exports going to the PRC, such as Mongolia and Turkmenistan, also profited from this. Higher fuel and metal prices benefitted the CAREC net exporters of mineral fuels and metals.

第三期《CAREC季度经济监测报告》显示，在经历2020年全年负增长之后，CAREC地区实际GDP平均增速终于在2021年一季度转为正值。中华人民共和国(PRC)复苏势头尤为强劲。对中国出口份额较高的国家，如蒙古和土库曼斯坦，亦从中受益。燃料和金属价格上涨使得CAREC地区矿物燃料和金属净出口国受益。

Наш третий Ежеквартальный экономический обзор ЦАРЭС показывает, что средний рост реального ВВП в регионе ЦАРЭС, наконец, стал положительным в первом квартале 2021 года после отрицательных темпов роста в течение 2020 года. Восстановление было особенно сильным в Китае. От этого выиграли и страны с высокой долей экспорта в Китай. Читайте наш анализ здесь вместе с дайджестом СМИ об инициативах по сотрудничеству ЦАРЭС.

This issue of the newsletter gives details of our TVET research, shares findings of the research on e-commerce infrastructure readiness in CAREC, and covers participation of our staff in international finance forum, SEZ forum, and several other webinars.

This policy brief on e-commerce infrastructure development in CAREC examines the economic factors and conditions in CAREC in terms of affordability and access to ICT to engage in online transactions, bandwidth availability, availability of online payment options, e-commerce platforms, delivery and logistics, economies of scale, etc. and draws conclusions to overcome challenges. It compliments the phase one research of the CAREC Institute where the state of legislation and regulation of e-commerce in CAREC was analyzed (in May 2020) and recommendations were issued to modernize and harmonize them to harness the opportunities of e-commerce.

Our second CAREC Quarterly Economic Monitor looks at economic developments in the CAREC region based on a full-year 2020 GDP, and fiscal and external economy data. Main conclusions include that the 2020 economic loss in the CAREC region was of a magnitude not seen since the early 1990s. The findings confirm that pandemics are extraordinarily costly not only from the point of view of lost lives, health, and social interaction, but also purely economically. Substantial public and private investment in pandemic prevention certainly pays off.