About 200 ministers and officials from the eight countries in the Central Asia, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and United Nation Development Programme will attend the coming 5th Ministerial Conference on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC)

The conference, to kick off on Oct. 20 in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is expected to pass a milestone comprehensive action plan and strategic initiatives to boast regional cooperation in Central Asia and its neighbors, said Jin Liqun, Vice President of ADB.

Jin said the ultimate purpose of CAREC is to carry out highly effective regional cooperation and therefore improve people's life in Central Asia.

Officials from countries including China, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to discuss the future regional cooperation.

Russia will attend the meeting as an observer, according to the conference's secretariat.

CAREC is a regional cooperation mechanism initiated by the Asian Development Bank. It focused on regional initiatives in transport, trade facilitation, trade policy, and energy that are critical to improving the economic performance of the region.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2006)