DUSHANBE, March 17, 2009, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are the most vulnerable to the financial crisis in Central Asia, Johannes Linn, Executive Director of the Wolfensohn Center for Development and Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview with Voice of America’s (VOA) Russian Service.
According to him, water-and-energy crisis, decline in export of cotton, gold and other goods have affected significantly these countries. “Additional problem for these countries is returning labor migrants. However, there is hope that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will show any inconsiderable growth.
International expert noted that in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, things have not got going since 2007 and it was connected with energy crisis and short delivery of energy resources. The situation has been aggravated by cold winters.
Therefore, it is obvious that crisis in these countries occurred at least a year before the global financial crisis. Authorities responded to that, and were trying to establish trade relations with neighbors, normalize power deliveries. International community also rendered assistance, providing food products, seeds and energy resources. However, this has proved to be not enough, and therefore, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank together with governments of these countries have begun implementing comprehensive anti-crisis programs, Mr. Linn said.
In the meantime, international expert expressed concern that the anti-crisis measures taken by Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan would be insufficient and noted that it was necessary to do much more, because the global financial crisis has just started and its effects could be disastrous for many countries.
