The Caspian Policy Center (CPC) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were the co-organizers of the 1st Caspian Business Forum New York along with the Embassies of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

The Caspian Business Forum New York brought together the policy and business leaders from the U.S. and the Caspian region corridor countries to discuss opportunities and challenges in enhancing their strategic engagement and explore business and finance opportunities to the benefit of all concerned.

Connecting businesses, people, and economies, the Caspian Business Forum New York presented an extensive and integrated network of business infrastructure, special financial zones, and cross-border investment opportunities.

The United States has been playing an important role in the development of the Caspian region through joint initiatives to increase regional connectivity through oil and gas pipelines, to facilitate intra-regional cooperation and trade such as the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Southern Gas Corridor, Lapis-Lazuli transport route and “C5+1” format. While these initiatives contributed to the increased business between the United States and the corridor countries concerned, the emerging business potential of the Caspian region is under-explored and trade with the U.S. is significantly lagging behind in comparison with the EU and China.

Building on the strategic partnerships forged between the U.S. and the Caspian countries concerned and emerging business potential of the region, the 1st Caspian Business Forum New York presented a leading platform to discuss the U.S. engagement with the strategically important Caspian region countries, including investments and financial relationship development, for benefiting both sides and the business community concerned.