Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governor Kuroda Haruhiko said in Urumqi on Friday that closer cooperation among central Asian countries will help reduce the poverty rate in the region from above 40 percent of the population to 25 percent by the year 2015.

Addressing the opening session of the 5th Ministerial Conference on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), the ADB official forecast that the region's per capita income will double over the next 10 years thanks to regional cooperation and economic reforms carried out by central Asian countries.

The conference, which kicked off Friday in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, is expected to approve a comprehensive action plan to boost regional cooperation in Central Asia and its neighbors.

About 200 officials from eight countries in Central Asia, the World Bank, ADB, and United Nations Development Program attended the conference chaired by China's Finance Minister Jin Renqing.

Officials from countries including China, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will discuss future regional cooperation.

CAREC is a regional cooperation mechanism created by ADB in 1997. It focuses on transport, trade facilitation, trade policy and energy initiatives that are critical to the economic performance of the region.

It is also financing infrastructure projects in order to improve living standards and reduce poverty in CAREC countries.

Source: Xinhua