Senior officials from the Central Asian neighbors agreed on Afghanistan’s accession to the Cross-Border Transport Agreement (CBTA) at a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan signed the CBTA in December 2010.

The CBTA, signed under the framework of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program, will ease the movement of goods, vehicles, and people across international borders. Vehicles and goods from participating countries will be able to cross designated borders faster, thanks to streamlined customs inspections and reduced requirements to transfer shipments between vehicles.

Established in 2001, CAREC brings together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It promotes the implementation of regional projects in energy, transport, and trade facilitation.

To date, member governments, ADB, and other international financial institutions have approved over 100 CAREC-related projects worth about $16 billion. These projects include six land transport corridors that cover 3,600 km of roads and 2,000 km of railway. They traverse the CAREC region north-south and east-west, linking Europe, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.

“Afghanistan’s accession to the CBTA represents a milestone in transforming a key CAREC transport corridor into an economic corridor,” said Juan Miranda, Director General of ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “The CBTA will facilitate cross-border and transit trade, thereby increasing business activity and investment in CAREC countries.”

Mozammil Shinwari, Director General of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries, said Afghanistan is keen to join the CBTA as a means to promote trade with Central Asian countries and beyond. “The CBTA will serve as a pilot project for removing barriers to the efficient cross-border transport of goods and people in the CAREC region,” he said.

Officials from Afghanistan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan will sign a protocol on Afghanistan’s accession to the CBTA at the 10th CAREC Ministerial Conference to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2011.

The CBTA will ultimately connect East Asia and the Arabian Sea through Central Asia, specifically along the route of CAREC Corridor 5. In Afghanistan, the Corridor starts at Torkham at the border with Pakistan, continuing through Jalalabad to Kabul, Kunduz, and Shirkhan Bandar. From the Tajikistan border crossing of Nizhni Pianj, Corridor 5 passes through Kurgan Tyube, Dushanbe, and Karamik. In the Kyrgyz Republic, it runs to the PRC border via Karamik, Sary Tash, and Irkeshtan.