The Caucasus Business and Development Network (CBDN), a project co-founded and supported by International Alert, recently visited London and Brussels to promote its work on economic approaches to peacebuilding and to publicise the initial results of its recent research. Between 17th and 25th March Alert’s partners gathered in London for a strategic planning meeting that was followed by seminars conducted by CBDN at King’s College in London and at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
Since last year, CBDN has been carrying out research on the impact of the August 2008 war on economies and economic cooperation in the South Caucasus. The research has been conducted within CBDN’s regional area, which covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as Abkhazia, Nagorny Karabakh and South Ossetia. The results show that while the conflict has had an overall negative impact on movements of goods and people, the region’s business communities are increasingly interested in engaging and promoting regional economic cooperation. The study also points out that, despite new formal obstacles, cross-divide trade continues to take place - albeit in smaller volumes - and that there is a strong need for new legal frameworks and economic models to facilitate economic relations across conflict divides.
CBDN’s common vision for a cooperating Caucasus and its modus operandi were illustrated by CBDN’s cross-divide presentation teams and their common messages, and were welcomed and received with great interest both in London and in Brussels. ‘CBDN’s very existence speaks volumes’ Denis Corboy, former Ambassador to Georgia and now Director of the Caucasus Policy Institute in King's College London, praising CBDN’s structure and geographical scope, and its survival over the years affirmed during a seminar.
In London, CBDN engaged with representatives from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development, members of the media including journalists from The Economist and the BBC, representatives from the expert community and civil society, and diplomats. In Brussels CBDN focused instead on reaching EU institutions and officials, including the office of the EU Special Representative for the crisis in Georgia, Pierre Morell, the Head of the European Commission’s relations with the South Caucasus and Eastern Europe, Gunnar Wiegand, and the Political Advisor to the European Parliament on the South Caucasus, Dag Soukander, along with representatives from national missions.
CBDN not only managed to impress participants with their pioneering work and vision, and hence challenge the usual flow of negative information from the region, but it also injected its enthusiasm into the audiences. The visits underlined the importance of feeding “real information” from the ground to policy makers - which is increasingly vital in Brussels. As a matter of fact, CBDN received pledges from EU officials to maintain good contact with them in order “to build confidence in a region which badly needs it”, as one official commented.
CBDN’s ongoing research on the 2008 war is part of the Network’s work aimed at promoting the role of economic actors in peacebuilding in the South Caucasus. During the last two years CBDN has facilitated and supported a large number of initiatives ranging from cross-conflict divide business ventures to promoting regional tea production, tourism and dairy sector cooperation in the South Caucasus. More recently CBDN supported the rehabilitation of a jointly operated Abkhaz-Georgian stone-cutting workshop in Tkvarchel/i. CBDN’s future work includes the promotion of wine-sector cooperation with a view to creating a Caucasian marketing label, as well as preparations for the 2nd Turkish-Armenian Business Forum and the participation in the 19th Krynica Economic Forum.