Tajikistan Local Politics - The Times Of Central Asia

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EBRD Helps Increase Reliability of Tajikistan’s Electrical Grid

An announcement was made on February 28th that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to increase the reliability and sustainability of electricity supply in Tajikistan. The national transmission network operator Shabaqahoi Intiqoli Barq (SIB) will be awarded some €31 million, comprising two EBRD sovereign loans and an investment grant of up to €8 million to help restore the existing transformer and construct a new one at the Sugd-500 substation in the north of the country. The northern Tajikistan power system depends on the 500 kV Sugd-Dushanbe high-voltage line connected to the Sugd-500 substation. Once upgraded and expanded, the substation will allow for a more sustainable electrical grid able to meet domestic and export demands. It will also help SIB integrate up to 700 MW of renewables in line with Tajikistan’s 2030 National Development Strategy to diversify its energy production. In 2023, Tajikistan’s energy capacity exceeded 6,000 megawatts, and electricity production amounted to 22 billion kilowatt-hours; 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours or 28% more than in 2017. Addressing the issue last December, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon announced that the government was making sound progress in its strategy to establish a ‘green economy’. To achieve this goal, he explained that over the next seven years, Tajikistan aims to increase electricity exports to 10 billion kilowatt-hours, and by 2030, the construction of power plants employing renewable energy sources will increase the production of green energy to 1,000 megawatts. Looking ahead, the country aims to source all its electricity from renewable sources, primarily hydropower, by 2023.

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Labor Migration – Making Money At Any Cost

The number of labor migrants from Tajikistan continues to grow steadily, officially reaching the highest figure seen in the last decade. According to the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment, in 2023, 652,014 people left the country to work abroad. Despite the fact that the Government of Tajikistan claims the poverty level in the country has decreased (the poverty threshold is not specified), in reality a huge swathe of the male population is working abroad in an attempt to feed their families. Up to 40% of households in Tajikistan have at least one member working abroad. Remittances from migrants therefore account for a significant part of the country's GDP, but the authorities claim they cannot say exactly how much is sent by migrants because these remittances are funneled through different channels (accounts, banks, cards or through compatriots). However, various international organizations have stated that the figure stands in the realm of billions of dollars. Thus, according to the World Bank-KNOMAD, migrants' remittances to Tajikistan in 2022 amounted to 5.346 billion dollars (39.6% of the country's GDP). This makes Tajikistan one of the most remittance-based economies in the world, which serves as both a boon and a curse for the authorities, for whilst this mass migration removes those often viewed as unemployed malcontents, it’s also a source of embarrassment. Against the background of military conflict, the number of Tajik workers in Russia has slightly decreased, from 775,000 in 2022 to just over 652,000 in 2023, according to the Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment, Gulnora Hasanzoda. However, official statistics from the Russian migration services, number citizens of Tajikistan who are labor migrants in Russia at 1.5 million, whilst several hundred thousand more have obtained Russian citizenship. Renowned for being humiliated and extorted by border guards, these ex-pats are easy targets for the Russian police and are the subject of attacks by Neo-fascist groups. Often living in dormitory blocks overseen by gang-masters on the plains of Siberia, many die on the job, but they couldn’t survive back home. The poorest of the post-Soviet Republics, in September 2020, the World Food Program estimated that 47% of people in Tajikistan live on less than $1.33 a day, whilst an estimated 30% suffer from malnutrition. A relatively new trend of leaving the country to work abroad has also been observed in Turkmenistan, where those serving in the police and in military units rank among the highest in terms of expats. Though salaries in these professions are considered quite high by Turkmen standards - police officers receive $142-157 and servicemen $160-185 a month, it is possible to earn several times more on a construction site, as a waiter or a cab driver in Russia. Thus, in April 2023 alone, around 200 officers from the Department of Internal Affairs of the Dashoguz Province of Turkmenistan submitted their resignations with the aim of going to work in Russia. Konye-Urgench Bazaar, Dashoguz Province, Turkmenistan. Photo: TCA. Against the background of aggravated labor migration, the authorities of Turkmenistan continue to...

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Tajikistan Extends Asset Legalization for Another Year

Since 2003 Tajikistan has been pursuing a policy of legalization, or declaration to tax and other authorities, of citizens' income and property. After Tajikistan's most recent attempts at legalization have been reassuring, parliament has extended the term of the monetary amnesty for one more year -- until January 5, 2025. Over the course of the policy that was set in motion by the law "on amnesty in connection with legalization of assets and money of citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan," the total amount of legalized, declared money amounted to $540m and 4,000 certificates of property. That data was cited by Firdavs Tolibzoda, chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan. The authorities have extended the program several times, although it was originally designed to run for a year, and its efficacy means it's getting yet another extension. The law provides for voluntary declaration of money and property. Thus, holders are exempt from liability and can avoid paying taxes, fines and interest on those fees and penalties. These conditions, as well as maintaining secrecy of ownership information, are guaranteed by the state. This is not the first time that Tajikistan has conducted monetary amnesty drives: legalization in the country has already been attempted three times, but this is the first time that both property and finances can be legalized at the same time. According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Tajikistan remains the country with the highest risk of money laundering and terrorist financing in the world. Despite the fact that the country is battling these types of crimes, the shadow economy still operates at a high level in Central Asia's poorest country. Bringing assets and income into the legal or "white" economy out of the shadow economy is seen as an effective way to attract additional funds to the country's economy and to increase the growth financing of its industries. It's expected that the new funds will help to create additional jobs by creating new enterprises and increasing the capitalization of existing ones. Only money and property which were not previously listed in official declarations can be legalized. At the same time, the state allows legalization of illegal assets that fall under more than 60 articles of the criminal and administrative code of the republic.

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Rahmon Approves New Leadership of Anti-Corruption Agency

Tajikistan's Anti-Corruption Agency has undergone a change of personnel. By decree of President Emomali Rahmon, Sukhrob Safarzoda has been dismissed from the post of First Deputy Director of the agency, and replaced by Barot Rasuli. Muzaffar Ahmadzoda was also removed from the post of Deputy Director, with Firuz Kamolzoda appointed in his place. Meanwhile, Hilolbi Kurbonzoda became Deputy Director of the State Service Agency, and Firuz Sharifzoda became First Deputy Head of the Main Department for Protection of State Secrets. President Rahmon held meetings with the new heads, drawing their attention to the shortcomings and problems that exist in the work of not only just these state bodies, but also others.

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Stepping Out of Stalin’s Shadow: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Demarcate 90% of Border

Representatives of the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan met in Bishkek on February 5th to complete negotiations on another 3.71 km of the common state border, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic has reported. The next meeting will be held in Tajikistan, with no date yet specified. Currently, approximately 90% of the border has been demarcated, with the remaining 10% still considered disputed. A long-standing source of conflict between the two nations, it is emblematic of the problem that even the length of the border - sometimes cited as being 975-kilomtres long, and at others times 972-kilomteres - is rarely agreed upon. As of January 2023, Tajikistan’s President Rahmon stated that 614-kilometres had been settled upon, backtracking on a previously stated figure of 664. In a sign of thawing relations, however, on November 9th 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic announced that a further 17.98 kilometers of the border had been agreed. With its scant natural resources and dwindling water supplies, the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of numerous skirmishes for many years. In 2014, all borders between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were closed indefinitely to Kyrgyz and Tajik citizens following clashes over a bypass road in disputed territory; mortars were fired and both armies suffered casualties. Trouble spilled over again throughout 2021 and 2022, reportedly starting over a water dispute in the Vorukh enclave, and leaving an unknown number in the hundreds killed, and up to 136,000 people evacuated. An enduring example of the chaos left behind by the USSR, the arbitrary division of Central Asia into Soviet Socialist Republics wholly disregarded existing cultural and geographical realities. This is exemplified by Stalin's application of Lenin’s policy on the “self-identification of working people,” a classic divide-and-rule play which saw culturally Tajik cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara being incorporated into Uzbek territory. In exchange, Tajikistan was given the inhospitable Khojand landmass surrounding the Fan Mountains. As late as 1989, Tajikistan petitioned Mikhail Gorbachev for the ‘return’ of Samarkand and Bukhara. This haphazard division also isolated around 100,000 residents in the Ferghana Valley from their central governments, creating eight large enclaves. Although three of these enclaves had populations fewer than 10,000 and two were used exclusively for pastures, the remaining three - Sokh (Uzbekistan within Kyrgyzstan), Vorukh (Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan), and Shakhimardan (Uzbekistan within Kyrgyzstan) have repeatedly proven problematic, particularly when countries enforce strict border regulations in response to disputes and disagreements over demarcation arrangements. These enclaves have been hotbeds for conflict: between 1989 and 2009, the Ferghana Valley witnessed approximately 20 armed conflicts, and in 2014 alone, Kyrgyzstan reported 37 border incidents.

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Electronic Devices Banned From Classrooms

The use of personal electronic devices has been banned in schools, the head of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education and Science, Rahim Saidzoda has said in an interview with Omuzgor. "We have made significant efforts to prevent students from using electronic copies [of materials] while they are in school. We have nearly finished supplying the necessary number of [physical] books to schools. Students were permitted to use electronics in class until recently - this was because of a lack of textbooks. Presently, the circumstances have changed; funds are sufficient, and the books have been published," the minister stated. Another reason for the ban is that parents frequently protested that their childrens' phones were taken away from them at during random searches at some schools, and that some administrators were even demanding payment in exchange for returning the device. Teachers and parents appear split on the issue. The first group feels that gadgets keep kids from studying and they haven’t figured out how to use these devices for learning; the second, on the other hand, feels that new technologies need to be introduced in order to stay up to date. A look at how the issue is handled in Kazakhstan – where children are banned by law from using phones in class - may shed light on the issue. In Kazakhstan, if the school has special boxes, children leave their devices in there, and if not, they are to remain in the children’s backpacks. The Deputy Minister of Education of Kazakhstan, Natalya Jumadildayeva, said she agrees with parents in Tajikistan who believe that use of electronic devices during classes will lower the results of both those using them, and their distracted classmates.