DUSHANBE, October 24, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Third Inter-parliament Forum “Tajikistan-Russia: Potential of Interregional Cooperation” is opening in the governmental residence in Dushanbe today.
President Emomali Rahmon will inaugurate the forum and Chairman of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament) Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev and his Russian counterpart, Chairman of the Federation Council (Russia’s upper chamber of parliament) Sergey Mironov will also address the inaugurating ceremony.
The forum members include Tajik and Russian MPs, regional administrators, experts and businesspeople of the two countries.
Issue related to improvement of legal foundation of economic cooperation between the regions of the country will be among the major topics of the Dushanbe forum.
The forum is also dedicated to consider state and prospects of further expansion of economic, social and humanitarian cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia at the level of regions as well as legal regulation of legal migration processes.
A roundtable meeting will be held on sidelines of the forum to discuss constructive mechanisms of professional training of working personnel, improvement of skills of teachers of the Russian language in Tajikistan and training of skilled personnel for Tajikistan at Russian universities.
Tomorrow, the forum will continue its work in Khujand, the capital of the Sughd province.
The forum is expected to result in signing of number of cooperation documents between regions of the two countries.
Some specialists expect the forum to give a new impulse to further expansion cooperation between the two countries and bilateral trade between them to reach US$1 billion in 2009.
According to data provided by the State Committee for Statistics, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation over the first nine months of this year has amounted to US$864.199 million. This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to Russia estimated at US$88.5 million and Tajikistan’s imports from Russia worth US$775.696 million.
