President Emomali Rahmon today morning congratulated Tajikistanis on the 29th anniversary of State Independence of Tajikistan, which is celebrated on September 9.
In his televised message, Emomali Rahmon, in particular, noted that the beginning of independence and the first steps towards building an independent Tajik state fell on a very difficult period in the history of the Tajik people.
“Through the fault of the traitors and enemies of the Tajik nation and their foreign patrons, our newly independent Tajikistan received an acutely sensitive blow as a result of the imposed civil war,” said the president. “At the time, when we did not even have the symbols of our independent state, and our people were making its first steps towards independence and freedom, traitors to the Motherland – those who sold their honor and conscience, dragged Tajikistan into a whirlpool of political confrontation and armed clashes.”
According to him, enemies and traitors to the Tajik nation and state intended to use weapons, intimidation and brutal murders to impose a strange culture and worldview on our people and create an Islamic state in Tajikistan. As a result, lawlessness and chaos reigned in the country, the authorities were paralyzed, more than 1 million of Tajiks became forced refugees, and in a short time tens of thousands of innocent citizens, including women, children and the elderly, died.
“As a result of the war, tens of thousands of children became orphans, mothers and women became widows, and many were left homeless. The most terrible consequence of the imposed war was that the threat of the disappearance of the young Tajik state from the political map of the world and the disintegration of the Tajik nation became a bitter reality.”
“In that extremely difficult period, we restored the pillars and foundations of our young state – law enforcement agencies and other paralyzed public authorities, directed their activities to protect the interests of the people and serve the independent state,” said Rahmon. “Thus, in order to protect the security of the state and society, we created the National Army and other competent bodies, including law enforcement and executive authorities.”
The Government actions reportedly made it possible to ensure the growth of the national economy annually during 1997-2020 and increase the real growth of the gross domestic product by 5 times.
“During the period of independence of our country, we created and reconstructed more than 1600 industrial enterprises, more than 2000 megawatts of new energy capacities, 2200 kilometers of international highways and built and commissioned 220 km of railways,” the president said.
During this period, the number of students in secondary educational institutions reportedly increased from 1,325 million in 1991 to 2.34million, and to cover them with education, we completed the construction and reconstruction of 3,030 secondary educational institutions and additional educational buildings with 651 000 seats.
Also, the number of higher professional educational institutions increased from 13 to 41, and the number of students from 69,300 in 1991 to 227,000, according to the president.
He noted that in the field of healthcare and social protection of the population, 1258 new institutions had been built and put into operation during the period of State independence, and their total number had increased from 2862 institutions in 1991 to 4369 institutions in 2020.
During the period of Tajikistan’s independence, the monetary income of the population reportedly increased 125 times, the poverty rate in the country decreased from 83% in 1999 to 26.3%, and the average life expectancy increased from 70 years in 1991 to 75 years.
Compared to 1991, maternal and infant mortality decreased by 3.1 and 3.5 times respectively, the head of state said.
