[21.05.10] Increasing trade and energy links between Central and South Asia
The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs [NUPI] has the great pleasure of inviting you to the seminar
Increasing trade and energy links between Central and South Asia:
implications for Tajikistan's development, regional stability and Afghanistan’s recovery
Trade and the development of energy links between Central and South Asia are on the increase. This offers potential benefits for regional economic growth and Afghanistan’s stabilisation process. At the same time, however, a number of challenges persist. Formal and informal trade barriers continue to hinder economic entrepreneurship in Afghanistan and the broader region. The development of Tajikistan’s considerable hydropower potential - which could bring significant benefits for Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - is made more difficult by Uzbekistan’s worries over impact on downstream irrigation.
This seminar seeks to address these challenges and highlight how the regional dimension to Afghanistan’s recovery encompasses both key assets and key dilemmas. It conveys the message that a regional approach to Afghanistan needs to be nuanced, concrete and realistic in its ambitions.
Magnus Marsden’s forthcoming NUPI report on cross-border trade in the region, including trade involving Afghanistan, will be launched at the seminar.
Programme [11.30 – 13.30]
- 11.30 Welcome
-
11.35 Cross-border traders in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan: recent field research findings.
Magnus Marsden, the School of Oriental and African Studies -
12.05 Linking Central Asia and South Asia: implications for inter-state relations and energy developments
Stina Torjesen, NUPI -
12.35 The hydropower sector in Tajikistan: main opportunities and barriers for development
Daniel B. Fjaertoft , Econ Pöyry - 13.05 Discussion
Participants:
Dr Magnus Marsden is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Dr Marsden has undertaken extensive field work in northern Pakistan and Central Asia and has in recent years focused on networks of transnational traders. Publications include Living Islam: Muslim religious experience in Pakistan's North West Frontier. (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Stina Torjesen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and Associate Professor at the Centre for Peace Studies, University of Tromsø. She specialises in security, energy, politics and interstate relations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and South Asia. Recent publications include (co-editor, with Elana Wilson Rowe) The Multilateral Dimension in Russian Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2008) and the Noref brief “Afghanistan’s recovery: what role for China?” (www.peacebuilding.no)
Daniel B. Fjaertoft is an Adviser at Econ Pöyry and an expert on Russia. Fjaertoft holds a Masters Degree in the Philosophy of Economics from the University of Oslo where he wrote an empiric assessment of the micro-economic foundations of Norwegian-Russian trade. Fjaertoft has previously worked as an adviser with the Norwegian Barents Secretariat promoting Russian-Norwegian cooperation within the fields of business, petroleum and maritime infrastructure and transport.