A new era of cooperation for Central Asia

Central Asia is a dynamic and fast-changing region. Over the past couple of decades, it has shown that increased regional cooperation is indispensable to achieving development goals.

The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation program started operations in 2001 and has made significant contributions to the region's growth. The program has grown steadily to 11 member countries and has financed more than $30 billion of investments to enhance transport and energy linkages and boost cross-border trade. Over a third of this amount, or $10.5 billion, has come from the Asian Development Bank, which has supported CAREC since its inception.

Despite their rapid development, countries in the region face significant challenges. The spillover impacts of global economic and financial crisis and of lower oil and gas prices have been acute. Climate change is a major global and regional challenge. These issues do not respect borders and underscore the value of working together to navigate the shifting development landscape.

The CAREC program needs a scaled-up mandate to become more effective and relevant in the years ahead.

Its CAREC 2030 strategy, unanimously adopted on Oct 27 by member countries in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, shows the region is ready to fully achieve its enormous potential by connecting its people, policies, and projects. I see four key ways in which it can create the conditions for future growth, stability, and prosperity.

Firstly, it will deepen support for traditional areas of cooperation, such as transport, energy, and trade facilitation. Regional cooperation cannot be achieved without the basic building blocks of good roads and railways, reliable power supplies, and the ability of businesses to seek new markets.

Infrastructure investments that integrate new technologies, coupled with appropriate regulatory reforms, will help accelerate the region's integration with global value chains and support the adoption of clean and renewable energy.

Secondly, there is a pressing need for macroeconomic policy dialogue among member countries to promote economic and financial stability. The CAREC program has provided a practical and flexible platform for infrastructure investment and policy planning.

Through initiatives such as a planned forum for countries to share experiences on banking and market regulation, CAREC 2030 can also help improve the region's investment climate, sustain economic growth, and manage the impact of cyclical economic downturns.

Thirdly, for Central Asia to truly prosper it must commit to cooperating in new areas. CAREC 2030's support for regional initiatives in tourism, agriculture, water resources, health and education will help countries achieve their sustainable development goals. Deeper cooperation will also help countries reach their targets under the COP21 climate agreement.

Cross-border tourism, value-added agricultural exports, and educational exchanges have tremendous untapped potential in Central Asia. But these can only be unlocked through a regional agenda where countries work together and share expertise.

Finally, development in Central Asia will depend crucially on building the capacities of its own people. Enhancing people-to-people contacts will help deepen intra-regional understanding and increase personal mobility. Enhanced business-to-business contacts are vital to increase private sector development and create jobs.

Greater labor mobility will allow people to improve their skills and obtain new jobs. It is encouraging that CAREC 2030 has embraced in principle a regional labor market information system focusing on skills needs and regional job search and placement, as well as cross-border higher education and technical training.

CAREC's new strategy will enhance its convening power for high-level policy dialogue among ministers and senior officials on key development issues. This dialogue needs to be backed with high-quality research by the CAREC Institute, which recently became an intergovernmental organization, and from member countries and development partners to build capacity in areas including education, health, and financial and economic stability.

The broader scope of CAREC 2030 provides new space for development partners like ADB to further support the region's prosperity. It also opens the prospect of exciting new partnerships with other regional programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

ADB will commit $5 billion to support CAREC 2030 in the next 5 years. We have just approved a new $800 million Multi-Tranche Financing Facility for CAREC road corridor development in Pakistan. Next year, we will finance the first phase of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan transmission line project for $150 million. ADB has also already begun discussions for regional projects in agribusiness, tourism, and railways—areas covered in CAREC 2030.

We seek the strong support of all member countries and development partners for the financing and successful implementation of the new CAREC strategy.

By harnessing the collective energies of CAREC member countries, the new strategy will help the region to capitalize on its unique geographical position and proximity to global markets. There is vast potential to improve connectivity and trade between the region's countries, to Europe and beyond.

CAREC 2030 is an opportunity to promote growth, stability, and prosperity in Central Asia. By working together, countries and development partners can secure the future that the region and its people deserve.

Abia seeks cooperation with New York

Abia State Governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and his New York State United States (U.S.) counterpart, Andrew Cuomo, met in the U.S. to discussed bilateral cooperation and economic relations between the two states.

The discussion, which held in New York, centered on how such cooperation would positively impact on the Abia economy, and effective harnessing of Abia's natural endowments, creating employment opportunities and external markets for her products, and production of more food for the citizenry.

Cuomo represented by his Director for New Americans, Dr Laura V. Gonzalez-Murphy, told Ikpeazu, who was represented by his deputy Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu, that "We want to equip people to become good entrepreneurs and we advise that Abia state stations somebody here in New York towards enhancing cooperation between our states."

He added that the New York State supports immigration, and thus considers every resident as a member of the New York family, saying "we also provide attorney for any immigrant in need." About 200,000 Abians are said to be resident in New York, some of them have naturalized and became US citizens.

Governor Ikpeazu had long before the meeting, appointed an Aide in the person of Dr Ngozi Ogbonna-Erondu, also in attendance at the meeting, as Coordinator, Abia State Diaspora Brain Trust, "to aggregate the enormous talent of our people who wish to contribute to the development of our state and engage with anybody who wishes to attract any project to the state in any form or manner."

The Governor listed the desired areas of interest for cooperation between Abia State and the New York State as: market for Made in Aba/Abia products, investment in the agriculture, Oil/Gas, large/Medium/Small Scale Enterprises, and Educational Exchange Programmes.

Albania, China have huge untapped potential in tourism cooperation

TIRANA -- Albania and China have huge untapped potential to cooperate in the tourism sector which has turned into a top priority for Albanian government, Ardit Collaku, general director of Albanian National Tourism Agency (NTA) told Xinhua in a written interview Wednesday.

According to Collaku, Albanian government will pay special importance to the building of infrastructure in order to reach remote areas with high touristic impact as well as build eco-resorts along the coastline.

Therefore, he said Chinese companies had an opportunity to come and invest in this sector.

The director said Albanian government was putting a strong emphasis on the development of the tourism sector, which has big potential for growth.

"Being a strategic sector, Albanian touristic offer ranges from awesome cuisine and gastronomy, historical heritage sites like Apollonia, Berat, Gjirokastra, Butrint, cultural events, awesome coastline with turquoise beaches, hiking trails in the Northern Alps, visiting historical castles and museums and so much more," Collaku said.

According to Collaku, Albania as an emerging market has multiple aspects for visitors to discover, including cuisine, bazaar and castles.

The tourism official says Albanian tour operators are well informed of Chinese tourists tastes, and thus have much touristic attractions to offer to the Chinese market.

"We find their interest towards cultural heritage very appealing for our market where different packages are offered, ranging from visiting UNESCO world heritage sites such as Gjirokastra, Berat, Butrint to indulging yourself in the amazing gastronomy and also the stunning beaches of the Albanian Riviera," Collaku said.

And for Albanian tourists, China is also an appealing destination, which had received many Albanian guests.

Speaking about the fact that last summer season, some Albanian tour operators offered tourist packages to visit China, Collaku considering such offer as very attractive.

According to the NTA director, the packages offered by Albanian tour operators to visit China were welcomed by Albanians as they were at very competitive prices.

"Albania, being an emerging market, is exploring new ways and building bridges with countries which once were thought to be far away are now being seen as very attractive places for incoming and outgoing tourism," the director told Xinhua.

Putin in Tehran hails Iran cooperation on Syria, eyes business

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran's leadership Wednesday, with the two Damascus allies pushing a peace deal on Syria and looking to boost business despite US opposition to a landmark nuclear deal.

The Kremlin strongman's first visit to Iran since 2015 comes as Moscow seeks to turn its game-changing military intervention in Syria into a concerted push to bring a halt to fighting in the country with the help of Tehran, President Bashar al-Assad's other key backer.

"We are working very productively with Iran and we manage to coordinate our positions on Syria," Putin said after talks with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Russian leader insisted that thanks to a joint push with rebel supporter Turkey, "the situation on the ground in the fight against terrorism and the negotiating process are developing very positively".

Khamenei said the "good cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in Syria shows that the two countries can realise their objectives even in difficult terrain", and insisted that all solutions to the conflict come "from inside the country".

Russia, Iran and Turkey pledged after a latest round of negotiations in Kazakhstan on Tuesday to bring the Syrian regime and its opponents together for a "congress" to push peace efforts in the Russian city of Sochi on November 18.

The three key players have organised a series of peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana this year, agreeing on the establishment of "de-escalation" zones in various parts of the war-torn country.

Rosneft eyes major projects

Putin's visit -- which in addition involved a three-way summit with Rouhani and the leader of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev -- also followed a hike in tensions over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after US President Donald Trump refused to certify the agreement last month.

Tehran signed the deal, which saw sanctions lifted in return for limits on Tehran's atomic programme, with six countries including Russia and the United States, and Moscow has slammed Trump's "aggressive and threatening rhetoric" against Iran.

While Putin said only that the two sides had discussed the deal, Russian companies looked to press on with taking advantage of the business opportunities that it has presented.

State oil giant Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company signed a roadmap agreement with an eye to developing joint projects worth up to $30 billion, Rosneft head Igor Sechin was quoting as saying by Russian news agencies.

Sechin said the two sides were looking to seal binding deals within a year to work on a "whole series of fields, oil and gas", and that eventual output could total 55 million tonnes of oil a year.

The potentially mammoth deal would boost Rosneft's push in the Middle East and aid the Kremlin's ambitions of bolstering its influence in Iran and the broader region.

Moscow and Tehran have had close political and economic relations, and in the nuclear field Russia has already built one reactor at Iran's Bushehr plant and just started work on two new ones.

Syria peace push

The military might of Moscow and Tehran in Syria has helped prop up Assad's forces and turn the protracted conflict in his favour with a string of key battlefield victories.

Since the start of the year, Russia has looked to cement the gains from its intervention by spearheading the peace push at talks in Kazakhstan, positioning itself as a broker between key players Iran and Turkey and largely bypassing the West.

Up until now the focus has been on quelling the violence on the ground and the three powers have established four "de-escalation zones" around rebel-held territory in the country.

The zones were initially credited for bringing about a significant reduction in bloodshed, but international aid groups say they are currently failing to curb the fighting.

Now Moscow seems keen on expanding its peace drive in search of a political settlement.

The push on Syria comes as ties between both countries and Washington have frayed still further since Trump moved into the White House in January.

Despite initial opposition, Trump in August signed off on a sanctions bill targeting Russia, Iran and North Korea after it was passed overwhelmingly by Congress.

Putin's arrival came a day after the US Treasury added 40 Iranian individuals and entities already targeted by sanctions to a counter-terrorism blacklist.

How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses

As the internet becomes more widespread in Cuba, online start-ups are emerging. But the problems many of the companies hope to address are also a reminder of how far the island has to go.
Bernardo Romero Gonzalez, a 33-year-old software engineer from Cuba, launched his new business this month: a website where people can order island-made products such as soap, bouquets of flowers and cakes for home delivery.
"It's like Amazon for Cuba, but with a difference," he told an audience of New York techies at a conference this month.
The summary was a classic start-up pitch, but it also underscored the obstacles when it comes to starting an online business in the Caribbean country.
Mr Gonzalez is counting on buyers from the Cuban diaspora, which already plays a role in the economy, sending money and other products to the island.
But the infrastructure doesn't exist for domestic buyers to sustain the market.

Growing internet
Internet access among Cuba's 11.2 million people is growing.
Between 2013 and 2015, the share of the Cuban population using the internet jumped from about a quarter to more than 35%, according to estimates from the International Telecommunications Union.
The growing market has helped draw the attention of internet giants, such as Airbnb, Netflix and Google, which installed servers on the island and started hosting data there last month.
The rise is also fuelling activity among local entrepreneurs, who are launching domestic versions of sites such as the crowd-review business directory Yelp.
But there's a long way to go.

'Third world conditions'
Less than 6% of Cuban households had internet access at home in 2015, one of the lowest rates in the western hemisphere, according to the ITU. (In the UK, that figure tops 91%.)
Wi-fi hotspots in parks and other public places operated by the state-run telecom company remain the primary way to log on.
Service at the hotspots is often slow, expensive and selective, with the government restricting access to the full range of internet sites.
The constraints are shaping the emerging Cuban start-ups.
At this month's TechCrunch conference in New York, Mr Gonzalez shared a stage with Kewelta, a firm focusing on advertising within decentralised online and offline networks, and Knales, which provides updates on weather, news and other events via text messages and phone calls.
Knales co-founder Diana Elianne Benitez Perera told the audience that "Cubans are disrupters by definition. We always find the way to have first world conditions with third world conditions."
'Change in the air'
The government in recent years has taken some steps to boost internet access, increasing wi-fi hotspots in parks and other places, lowering prices and experimenting with home installations.
The measures come amid broader economic changes in Cuba, after the Castro regime loosened rules for private enterprise and the Obama administration eased the US embargo, unleashing large numbers of US travellers.
The Cuba Emprende Foundation started working with the Catholic Church in Cuba about five years ago as the reforms started, funding four-week courses in entrepreneurship from which more than 3,000 people have graduated.
The Foundation helped organise the 10x10KCuba start-up competition in which both Diana and Bernardo participated last year, that led to the invitation to the Tech Crunch conference in New York in May.
"There's change in the air," says Anna Maria Alejo, one of the people who helped organise the TechCrunch panel and helped raise about $10,000 (£7,700) to pay for eight entrepreneurs to attend the conference.
"We're not exactly sure where things will go, but there's a lot of optimism among these young people," she says.

'Workarounds'
Cuba has a relatively high number of well-trained software engineers, especially for a country with its size and degree of internet access, said Kirk Laughlin, managing director of NearShore Americas.
The media advisory company published a report in 2015 that highlighted the island's potential as a hub for cheap IT labour.
But Mr Laughlin says he's been disappointed by how slowly the Cuban government has moved to improve the broadband network, especially given interest from international companies and numbers of educated Cubans opting to leave and take their chances elsewhere.
"There is such an opportunity to leapfrog ahead and really light up the island with really robust broadband. That is just not happening," he says.
"When it comes to online start-ups, there's a lot of workarounds".
"That's great that people have the ingenuity and creativity and in some ways we should applaud that," he says.
"But it's still a long way to go to get into the league that Cuba has great qualifications to participate in."

'The companies are waiting'
Some say the changes could accelerate after Raul Castro retires next year.
In speeches, Mr Castro's presumed successor, vice president Miguel Diaz-Canel, has indicated a more open attitude, said Larry Press, a professor emeritus at California State University Dominguez Hills, who has researched the internet in the developing world and writes a blog on Cuba.
Mr Press said media recently praised Revolico, a Craigslist-like site that was blocked by the government after its launch in 2007. More recently, it has been celebrated and has inspired competitors.
But those steps aside, a lot of work remains, he says.
"Those indicate a change of attitude, not a giant change of reality."
Mr Gonzalez, who has also started computer repair and web development businesses, said he thinks the moment for Cubazon is now, while shipping to Cuba from the US remains limited.
He and the staff from his current business are working to sign up more businesses to sell their wares on Cubazon.
Many of the people he's talking to don't have an online presence, he says, but can see the possibility: "The companies are waiting for us."
Still, he adds, his primary focus for the moment is a basic one: "My goal currently is working."

Small business: Why Soccer Shots’ owner chose to franchise

It didn't come as a surprise when Soccer Shots owner Jeremy Sorzano started a business teaching kids how to play soccer. He was a defender on the Charlotte Eagles Soccer Club from 1996-2003.

Sorzano, 43, like most of the Eagles players, supplemented his income by running soccer camps and clinics for children. In 1997, Sorzano realized that offering elective soccer instruction at childcare facilities across Charlotte was an untapped niche market.

Soccer Shots, a program for children, ages 2-8, introduces soccer to young children. It also helps out parents who may not have the opportunity to bring their child to another location for a soccer program.

In 2005, Soccer Shots started to franchise. Sorzano owns Soccer Shots Charlotte with Dustin Swineheart and Matt Uher. Sorzano and three other partners own the franchised branch of the business. Currently, they have 110 owners in 180 territories, including one in Canada.

Sorzano spoke to CharlotteFive for the Small Business Series:

Why did you decide to franchise?

"I was running the local business here in Charlotte. As it was growing, my friend and business partner introduced Soccer Shots up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We were both running a program, and a few friends wanted to do the same thing in the cities they live.

"In order to do that, we decided to franchise. Just like with any franchise, they get to use our name, the curriculum and the marketing materials we produce."

What makes Soccer Shots different from other similar programs?

"One is obviously the curriculum. We tailor the sessions to the various age groups we serve. Our goal is for children to find success and hopefully fall in love with soccer and want to continue to play.

"We also work hard to communicate with parents. We send session summaries home with (the) skill of the day and the character word we taught so parents are aware of what their child is learning."

How important are the coaches to your business?

"Soccer Shots actually pays all of our coaches. With that comes about 20 hours of training. Then we try to monitor how they are doing and make sure we have coaches that know how to work with those age groups and that they are fun and energetic.

"We are serious about finding coaches who really want to have an impact on children and are committed to being prepared and deliver a great experience."

Soccer Shots has several owners. How do you manage these business relationships?

"There are some pretty sobering stats out there showing that most partnerships don't last. They take work. Maybe it's a little bit like a successful marriage. It takes communication, it takes being honest, knowing your goals and making sure that you clearly define who is responsible for what parts of the business.

"I think you have to be able to step back and let people do their job."

What do you do for fun?

"I've got twin 3-year olds. My fun these days is spending time with my wife and them and watching them grow up. We are hoping to get them more interested in hiking and camping, which we really enjoy doing. But that's a work in progress."

An unacceptable price for low business taxes

The Labour pledge to raise corporate taxes (Report, 10 May) is the economically responsible reaction to the failures of corporate tax competition. The deductive mathematical models from supply-side economics that justify low corporate taxation assume that "the state" is purely self-seeking and "the firm" an efficient bundle of contracts that creates wealth. They ignore the historical functions of actual states as the primary force for social integration and development in capitalist systems. They ignore the shift of actual large corporations away from the "retain and reinvest" model of the post-war period to the extractive "downsize and divest" model of the present, to use William Lazonick's terms.

Supply-side theory insists that reduced corporate taxation equals increased productive investment and long-term wage growth, but where is the evidence for this outcome? The "competitively" lower taxed UK has seen slower improvements in productivity than Germany, France, Sweden, Norway or the US, which retains the highest corporation tax of all. British business expenditure on R&D as a proportion of GDP has declined in the last decade and the UK has suffered a historic drop in real wages. In an era of unprecedented corporate profits and high cash holdings the evidence for the redundancy of tax relief is remarkable: UK corporate tax cuts have apparently translated straight into higher shareholder payouts and share repurchases to further inflate the share price: ie they have been absorbed into the prevailing US and UK dynamic of financial value extraction that underpins the escalating wealth of the 1%, not an investment dynamic.

Investment funds typically consider a dividend payout ratio (the relationship of payout to earnings) of over 55% as indicating a drain on long-term earnings potential and unsustainable. By August 2016 the ratio for the FTSE 100 stood at 107%.

Large corporations may decry Labour's tax policy but the OECD evidence is that firms intent on long-term investment (rather than, say, mergers and acquisitions to secure tax breaks) are primarily concerned with the skills base, infrastructure and R&D. Labour's corporate tax policy is essential not just to help pay for this human and fixed capital investment but to wean large UK firms off the crack of wealth extraction and back to wealth creation.