DUSHANBE (TCA) — The European Commission has announced a €59 million support program to boost rural development in Tajikistan.

Agriculture contributes to about one quarter of the country’s GDP and close to three quarters of the population live in rural areas. Yet the rural economy suffers from structural challenges, notably in the areas of natural resource management and business activity, the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan said on August 16.

Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica said: “With this new €59 million investment we will help Tajikistan’s rural communities to use natural resources in a sustainable way and improve their resilience to extreme climatic conditions. This will benefit the communities themselves and all of us”.

In addition, the EU will help to enhance business competitiveness, strengthen the management of natural resources, and promote sustainable and efficient use of water.

The newly approved program, Rural Development Programme II, builds on past EU efforts in the sector and merges the ongoing EU programs Rural Development Programme I and Enhancing Competitiveness of Tajik Agribusiness Programme.

The former program has demonstrated important reforms in natural resource management, livelihoods and job creation. For instance, in the area of irrigation rehabilitation and river basin management, social mobilization activities resulted in temporary job opportunities for 1,992 beneficiaries, of which 618 are women.

The latter program has resulted in increased rural investment. Through the project and in collaboration with local banks, 74 loans were disbursed in the farming sector, accompanied by a supply of equipment for food safety and quality certification, now being operated in six laboratories in Tajikistan.

The newly approved program will:

– enhance business competitiveness by supporting an equal number of female and male farmers and agro-processors in business management/planning, marketing strategies and credit applications.
– strengthen the management of natural resources by identifying and implementing Disaster Risk Reduction measures in coordination with the local communities and authorities.
– promote sustainable and efficient use of water through the supply and instalment of measurement equipment and software, that will enable modelling and management of water flows in basins in the targeted provinces.

The measures will be realized in cooperation with the German development agency Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the World Bank, and other organizations.

EU-Tajikistan relations date back to 1991, when the European Commission launched the Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) programme. Tajikistan is the biggest recipient of bilateral assistance in Central Asia. EU bilateral development assistance has increased from around €20 million annually in the early 2000s to around €33 million annually today. The current cycle’s funds for Tajikistan focus on improving education, health and rural development, as well as boosting investment.

NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — A prominent Kazakh activist on trial for inciting ethnic tensions has been released from police custody and fined the equivalent of nearly $300, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Former Prime Minister Sapar Isakov on August 16 was transferred from a pretrial detention center in Bishkek, where he has been held since June 2018 on corruption charges, to a Bishkek hospital with stroke symptoms.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — For the first time in Uzbekistan’s history, the share of investment in the country’s gross domestic product has exceeded 38 percent. In previous years, this figure had not reached 25 percent, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at a government meeting on August 14 to discuss the results of socio-economic development in the country in the first half of 2019 and priority tasks for the second half of the year, the president’s official website reported.

It was said that this year, declared as the Year of Active Investments and Social Development in Uzbekistan, large-scale efforts are underway to attract and develop investments, primarily foreign direct investment.

In the first half of the year, indicators of the development of foreign direct investment grew 2.7-fold, while funds drawn from international financial institutions increased 3.7-fold.

During the period, the country’s gross domestic product increased by 5.8 percent and industrial production grew 6.9 percent.

The president stressed the need for a radical reform of the banking system, introduction of new types of banking services and improving their quality.

In the first six months of the year, inflation amounted to 5.6 percent and did not exceed forecast indicators.

The president also spoke about boosting the role of manufacturing industry in the economy.

“Over the past year, the share of industry in gross domestic product has grown from 26 to 30 percent, but this still does not correspond to the scale of the reforms we started,” Mirziyoyev said.

BISHKEK (TCA) — The former British Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Robin Ord-Smith, has been appointed the country’s business ombudsman, according to a decree signed by Kyrgyz Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziyev on August 15, the Government’s website reported.

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