DUSHANBE, October 22, Asia-Plus  -- Prospects for Trans-Asian and Eurasian transit transport development in Central Asia will be the focus of a regional two-day OSCE conference that opens at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe tomorrow. 

The OSCE Center in Dushanbe said that high-level customs and transport officials from Central Asia and the South Caucasus, officials from OSCE''s Asian Partners for Cooperation Afghanistan, Japan and Mongolia, and representatives from Russian Federation, Turkey and other OSCE participating States will discuss the transit transportation challenges facing the landlocked region.

Participants include Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, Ambassador Ivar Vikki, Head of the OSCE Centre in Almaty, Rustan Jenalinov, Secretary General of the Inter Governmental Commission Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia, and Serik Primbetov, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Economic Community as well as international experts from the United Nations, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the World Customs Organization.

The high-level conference is expected to help strengthen political co-operation on transit transportation issues across the region. It will also contribute to a regional mid-term review of the 2003 Almaty Program of Action, which was designed to address the special needs of landlocked developing countrie