DUSHANBE, December 4, Asia-Plus — The second meeting of the Supervisory Board for the Trade Promotion Project in Tajikistan will be held in Dushanbe on December 5.
The supervisory board members include representatives from Tajikistan’s ministries of economic development and trade, agriculture and environmental protection, energy and industries, agency for standardization, metrology, certification and trade inspection, as well as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), International Trade Center (ITC) and private sector.
Abdulfattoh Shafiyev, the national consultant for public relations, International Trade Center (ITC), told Asia-Plus that the meeting would consider a progress of implementation of the project and problems and obstacles facing sector dealing with processing fruits and vegetables and exporting fruit-and-vegetable goods, as well as plans for next year.
Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Larisa Kislyakova and Armen Zargaryan, Adviser to ITC for Promoting Regional Trade, and Saidmoumin Kamolov, National Project Manager, are expected to deliver statements at the meeting.
According to Shafiyev, the project has been implemented successfully this year: Tajik enterprises dealing with processing vegetables and fruits have participated at international fairs, concluded new contracts and found new partners. Besides, a new directory of Tajikistan’s exporters has been prepared and published, as well as specialists in security and quality of food products have been trained.
Tajikistan’s trade system is particularly vulnerable to external shocks because of its reliance on a few commodities export (cotton, aluminum) but also geographical concentration of its trade. Both for internal as for external reasons a diversification of production is therefore of major importance. As the domestic market is too small to allow the development of sectors based only on national demand, a diversification of exports is crucial for a balanced economic development. The Trade Promotion Project in Tajikistan is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). At present the second phase of the project is being implemented. Tajik partner to the project is the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT). One of objectives of the project is development of processing of vegetables and fruits as one of priorities of agricultural sphere in Tajikistan’s export potentials.
The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the joint technical cooperation agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). ITC enables small business export success in developing countries by providing, with partners, trade development solutions to the private sector, trade support institutions and policy-makers.
