Geographic focus: All 11 TRACECA participating states: Ukraine, Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrghyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Republic of Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Moldova.

Project budget : EURO 2,550,000

Contractor : Tractebel Development Engineering

Implementation timetable: from September 1996 to January 2000

Background and Objectives. Two years after the start of the TRACECA Programme for trade and transport technical assistance in May 1993, a Programme Management Team was appointed, based in Brussels. Their goals were : (i) to stimulate co-operation among the participating Republics in all matters related to the development and improvement of trade within the Region and to promote the Central Asian - Trans Caucasian - European Transport Corridor ; (ii) to identify problems and deficiencies in the Region’s trade and transport systems and to define, in terms of contents and timing a Technical Assistance Programme ; (iii) to increase coherence, efficiency, diffusion and sustainability of existing projects by effective co-ordination and to identify and develop new projects fitting the TRACECA objectives. On request of the Beneficiaries, that assignment was renewed in September 1996 under the name of TRACECA Co-ordination Team. The Team then established a network of offices in the TRACECA region in order to work with the Beneficiaries on a daily basis.

Key Issues and Achievements. The Team increased cohesion between projects, especially the exchange of information and data between Contractors, and developed cohesion between these existing project activities and TRACECA participating States. The Team presented new project concepts or extensions of existing projects for budget approval, and launched new projects including preparation of ToR and the introduction of the contracted consultant into the TRACECA environment. The establishment of regional offices in Tashkent and Tbilisi and sub-offices in Almaty, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Ashgabat, Baku and Yerevan has greatly improved the focus of the co-ordination in each participating state. These offices have provided strong links between Contractors and the participating States, and between the Contractors working in-country. As communication between all participants, and between the programme and the outside world, is of continuing concern, a World Wide Web site has been created and maintained. This website contains TRACECA background information and project reports. It is interactive, multi-layered, and links with other EU sites. Ultimately, the Team used projects to stimulate the investment by international financial institutions (IFIs) and commercial partners. Discussions have been held with all IFI transport related missions known to have visited the TRACECA states, including those that are not directly related to a TRACECA project component. Contacts with the EBRD, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are particularly frequent.