Tajikistan: Remittances from labor migrants exceed foreign investments

DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajikistan’s labor migrants abroad send home much more money than direct foreign investments coming to Tajikistan, Avesta news agency reported.

According to Tajik government sources, in 2013-2019 the economy of Tajikistan received a little more than US $3 billion of direct foreign investment.

In November, Jamshed Nurmakhmadzoda, chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan, said that in January-September 2019, Tajik labor migrants abroad sent home $2.490 billion, a 7-percent increase on-year.

Experts say that the main source of living of hundreds of thousands of Tajik families is money sent home by their family members working abroad.

Most Tajik labor migrants work in Russia.

It was earlier reported that over the past five years (2013-2018), Tajik labor migrants sent home via bank transfers more than $15 billion, which manifold exceeds the amount of direct foreign investments during the period.

Avesta earlier reported that the amount of money sent home by Tajik labor migrants from Russia in January-September of this year exceeded Tajikistan’s annual budget.

It was also reported that remittances from labor migrants abroad account for more than 75 percent of all income of Tajikistan’s population.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
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Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

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