DUSHANBE, April 26, 2013, Asia-Plus — Some 30 billion somoni, including more than 12 billion somoni of budgetary funds, will be spent within the next three years for improvement of the population’s wellbeing, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon announced today while addressing a joint meeting of both chambers of the parliament.
President Rahmon also noted today that new waves of global financial and economic crisis have had direct or indirect negative impact on Tajikistan’s economy.
“However, we have managed to provide an average annual GDP growth of 7 percent over last seven years and we have managed to implement all the planned economic development programs, irrespective the global crisis. But for artificially created barriers in the region, the GDP growth would have reached some 9 percent per year,” said Rahmon.
In his address, the president also noted that the poverty rate in the country fell from 81 percent to 39 percent in 2012. The government predicts that the poverty rate will drop to 30 percent at the beginning of the next year.
“In 2020, Tajikistan’s GDP growth will increase by 80 percent as compared with this year and the country’s population will exceed 10 million,” the president said, adding that the rates of wages, pensions, allowances and student grants will triple in 2020 as compared with 2013.
Usually, in an address to the parliament, the president discusses the country’s priorities in domestic and foreign politics as well as main economic challenges.
