DUSHANBE, November 13, Asia-Plus -- A meeting of the Steering Committee of the Central Asian Gateway (CAG) project is going on in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 

The meeting has hosted persons representing project implementing institutions: AKIpress, Asia Plus and Center for Economic Research (CER).  UNDP Regional Center in Bratislava has also been represented.  

Yesterday, the meeting discussed reports of national project facilitators for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on work carried since the beginning of this year.    

Statistics show that number of visitors of the project website www.cagteway.org throughout the world has increased considerably over the report period, a number of informational analytical materials posted on the site has also increased.   

National Project Facilitator for Tajikistan Jamshed Mannonov, in particular, noted that that this year, presentation of the project has been held in the OSCE Center n Dushanbe, UNDP CO Tajikistan, ADB Dushanbe Office and contacts and information exchange have been established with international organizations active in Tajikistan and local NGOs and analytical centers.       

Sergey Masaulov, representative from the Center for Public Technologies in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan presented the survey entitled “Formation of Public Policy in Kyrgyzstan”, Zaure Sidykova, chairperson of the Small Business Support Center, and Alina Saginbayeva, director of the Central Asian News Service, reported on problems and prospects of analytical work and exchange of information.

Umed Babkahanov, Director General of the News Agency Asia-Plus, noted that at present it could be topical to post materials about price hike in the region     

There have been four CAG Steering Committee meetings so far (three in 2005 and one in 2006). This meeting is envisioned to: provide a collective analysis of CAG accomplishments; introduce staff changes in the CAG regional team; discuss CAG development trends; identify necessary fundraising and collaboration strategies and tactics in respect of donors and stakeholders; brainstorm to enhance the overall efficiency of the project (e.g. further enlargement of active e-audience, generation of additional new project components, further visibility boosting measures etc.); and elaborate directions for further joint action resulting into the Plan for the year 2008. 

  The Central Asian Gateway project is based on the idea of supporting the regional integration processes and particularly aims at facilitation of regional knowledge exchange and transfer along with promoting networks among socio-economic research institutions, and other development stakeholders in the region and abroad for supporting regional integration and sustainable development. Project target audience includes communities of experts in and beyond Central Asia as well as international organizations, and government representatives.  Also academic communities and students are active consumers of CAG informational products.  Integration is viewed in a wide sense of the word encompassing joint collaboration of countries of the region while the information delivered by the project is currently adapted mostly towards various regional initiatives (EURASEC etc.).

Beginning from January 2005, project implementation has been based on strategic partnership of the advanced research and media institutions in of Central Asian countries. Nowadays the project is implemented by AKIpress Information agency (Kyrgyz Republic), Asia Plus Agency (Tajikistan) and Center for Economic Research (Uzbekistan) with support from UNDP Regional Center in Bratislava.

To ensure that CAG project implementation activities remain within the scope of its goals and objectives, it was proposed to establish the CAG Steering Committee (CAG SC) consisting of representatives from strategic partner institutes and UNDP RBEC representatives.  The CAG Steering Committee serves as the supreme governing body of the CAG portal with rights to strategically guide, control and support the project operations of CAG.  The CAG SC approves CAG development strategy and regular workplans.  The main outcome of the CAG Steering Committee operation is strengthening of the CAG organizational structure, securing ownership of the project by development stakeholders and leveraging of resources, synergy and resonance of major development stakeholders for rapid regional development.