More Economic Development Progress
Tajikistan’s commitment to development seems to be paying off (setbacks in democratization notwithstanding). The International Monetary Fund has agreed to work closely with Tajikistan to strengthen macroeconomic policy, as well as provide poverty-reduction loans.
Like Kazakhstan, Tajikistan seems to be focusing very closely on improving the quality of life in the country in terms of health and economic wellbeing, but ignoring or backpedaling on other types of reform such as opening up the political system. The country is certainly surpassing neighbors such as Uzbekistan, who just lost World Bank funding.
on March 20th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
This is a good start but I highly doubt that more loans could make Tajikistan strong economically unless they are indeed chanelled down to the sectors that need those.
The whole idea with loans is a very controversial one. Although one could argue that there is a correlation between the loans and countries GDP growth, I doubt that such aid should be made available to the country in the long run.
The country needs to take advantage of its cheap labor (perhaps explore the opportunities in the textile industry) and tap into its existing energy (hydropower) and production (aluminum) resources using primarily private sector money and players.
Those guys know how to run an efficient plant and believe me that is one major thing Tajiks need to learn to survive.