Water, May 1992

In May 1992, Gregory Gleason in collaboration with Duke University organized a training session in modern agricultural and water management practices at the University of World Economics and Diplomacy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Biskhek Seminar

on Public Policy

April 1993

In April 1993 Gregory Gleason and Bakhtiar Atabaev (Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences) organized a training session in public policy and public administration at the Kyrgyz National University in Bishkek.

Hujand Seminar

November 1994

In November 1994, Gregory Gleason (University of New Mexico, Zohreh Ghavamshahidi (University of Wisconsin), and Bakhtiar Atabaev (Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences) organized and participated in a seminar on regional integration held in Hujand Tajikistan. Fifteen scholars participated in the seminar, including two from the U.S., three from Uzbekistan and seven from Tajikistan. The Tajikistan Center for Management co-sponsored the seminar. The Hujand seminar focused attention on two pressing areas of economic and scientific concern: 1) regional integration and 2) sectoral integration. Plans were drawn to sponsor regional seminars to encourage communication among scholars and policy makers regarding the dangers of autarkic regional competitions. Plans were drawn to sponsor sectoral integration seminars to bring physical scientists, engineers, and scholars together to explore ways of applying the resources of the research and development communities to the solution of practical production problems.

Yekaterinburg Seminar

March 1996

On March 5, 1996, the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy and Law, located in Ekaterinburg, Russia, sponsored a one-day seminar for twelve Institute specialists. The seminar was devoted to the discussion of the impact of globalization on local and municipal financial practice in the Ural region of Russia.

Almaty Seminar

March 1998

On April 1-2, 1998, the Asian Development Bank sponsored a two workshop on infrastructure needs in transportation. The workshop was held at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management and Planning in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Twenty representatives from the Kazakhstan government, private trading parties, personnel from government research institutes, and academic researchers participated in the workshop.

Bishkek Seminar

August 1998

International economic cooperation is typically affected by a number of factors, including government-imposed barriers to trade, fluctuations in exchange rates, physical infrastructure for transportation and communication, and a host of non-economic factors such as national historical and cultural ties. The borders among many of the countries of Central Asia are of recent origin. Their significance in terms of international cooperation differs from case to case in relation to the above factors. One of the most promising opportunities for policy simplification is the case of trading relations between Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan. For a brief period in 1995, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan began developing customs facilities at their border, but an executive agreement brought that to an end in the late spring 1995. The subsequent Quadrapartite customs agreement, the Tri-state Central Asian

customs agreement, and the parallel efforts at WTO accession have produced a transparent border between Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan. There are some continuing issues of policy coordination, primarily relating trucking and shipping policies, freight bonding, and other insurance policies. But serious policy incompatibilities largely have been eliminated. For these reasons, the Kazakstan-Kyrgyzstan border is generally regarded as the most cooperative and open border in the Central Asian subregion. Recognizing this achievement, the Asian Development Bank sponsored a one-day workshop in Bishkek Kazakstan on Kazakstan-Krygyzstan trade cooperation. The workshop, held on August 14, 1998 at the Academy of Management of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, brought together forty-two government officials, traders, transporters, tourism specialists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and representatives of multilateral donor organizations.

See the Report on Trade Cooperation published by the Asian Development Bank.

Yekaterinburg Seminar

May 2000

The Urals State Technical University in Ekaterinburg, Russia and the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, USA) cooperated to offer a four-day symposium on public

private partnerships. The goal of the symposium was to explore new opportunities for cooperation between the public and private sectors. The symposium featured public officials, business people, scholars and analysts from the Russian Federation and the USA. The symposium included 50 participants from leading research institutions in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan. This seminar was made possible by a university partnership sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Workshops on Energy in Eurasia

The purpose of this project is to develop capacity to facilitate the reintegration of the Russian, Central Asian, and Chinese electric grids. The multilateral donor community has been encouraging the governments of the region to develop a region-wide energy market. The goal of reintegrating the previously separated electric grids was formally announced by the governments of the region in summer 2000. In summer 2001 the grids were physically connected. This project assists Central Asian educational institutions in Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan in developing capacity in law, economics, and business in order to prepare for the public sector implications of reintegration.