DUSHANBE, June 15, 2013, Asia-Plus – The demand for regular foreign passports (passports for foreign travel) has reportedly increased considerably in Tajikistan.
“Monthly requirement of the population in regular foreign passport has increased from 20,000 to 63,000,” Jamoliddin Ubaidulloyev, the head of the Tajik MFA Consular Department, told reporters at a briefing in Dushanbe on June 14.
“In January alone, we handed over 64,000 blank foreign passports to the Ministry of Interior,” said Ubaidulloyev, “Recognizing the importance of this problem, we signed an agreement with the Banknote Factory of the National Bank of Kazakhstan for 100,000 blank foreign passports; of them, 70,000 were handed over to the Ministry of Interior.”
In February, Tajikistan reportedly signed another agreement with the Banknote Factory of the National Bank of Kazakhstan for 200,000 blank foreign passports. The first 100,000 blank passports are expected to arrive in Tajikistan in August and the remaining 100,000 blank foreign passports will arrive in Tajikistan in September.
Until January 1, 2013, the population’s annual requirement in blank foreign passports had fluctuated from 250,000 to 270,000,” Ubaidulloyev noted.
According to him, the MFA simultaneously signed an agreement with German Muhlbauer for 200,000 blank biometric passports. The first consignment of them is expected to arrive in Tajikistan in September this year.
“Taking into account the arisen necessity, the ministry has signed one more agreement with Muhlbauer for 500,000 other blank biometric passports and they are expected to arrive in the country before December this year,” Ubaidulloyev added.
We will recall that that German Muhlbauer has been granted a contract for purchase of blank biometric passports for Tajikistan. A two-stage tender for purchase of blank biometric passports and appropriate equipment, announced by the Agency for State Purchases at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was held in June 2009. On August 27, 2009, Tajik MFA and German Muhlbauer signed a contract on purchase of blank biometric passports and appropriate equipment for Tajikistan.
