DUSHANBE, January 16, Asia-Plus — Rahmatillo Zoirov, head of Tajik Legal Consortium, told a news conference in Dushanbe on January 15 that if entrepreneurship does not develop Tajik economy will be paralyzed.
According to him, today, critical components in Tajikistan’s economy are labor migrants, donor investments as well as funds of international drug rings.
Analyzing the entrepreneurship situation in the country as head of the Legal Support for Business in Tajikistan Project sponsored by the Eurasian Foundation of Central Asia, Mr Zohirov has come to the conclusion that there are two categories of entrepreneurs in Tajikistan who run their businesses successfully analyzed: 1) former Soviet party functionaries , who had profitably used their party careers and 2) persons who have close ties with the present authorities.
“These two categories constitute only 3 percent of the total number of entrepreneurs in the country; however, they own 65%-70% of the country’s economic resources,” said Zoirov, “While the remaining entrepreneurs frequently faces many problems, including illegal seizure of property, which has become alarm tendency in Tajikistan.”
According to him, such situation gives rise to entrepreneurs’ fear of authorities and they stop protecting their rights.
Zoirov also noted that legal awareness level of Tajik entrepreneurs is also still very low. “Only nine of 300 surveyed enterprises have lawyer positions in their staffs,” he said, noting that other issues related to legal support for entrepreneurship in the country would be considered in a seminar, which is conducted by Tajik Legal Consortium on January 17-19.
The seminar will be held in three sections: for entrepreneurs on January 17; for journalists on January 18; and for representatives from judicial bodies on January 19.
