DUSHANBE, February 9, Asia-Plus – The U.S. Department of State has published extracts from draft budget for 2006 noting that a total volume of assistance on the item “Assistance to Independent States of Former USSR” is expected to be US$508.8 million this year, the APN-Kazakhstan news agency reports.
The biggest amount of assistance will be provided to
Ukraine
(US$85 million) and, in
Central Asia
to
Kyrgyzstan
(US$24.7 million), according to APN-Kazakhstan.
Tajikistan
this year is expected to receive US$22 million, according to the news agency.
In the 2007 fiscal year, the
United States
intends to reduce the volume of assistance from US$508.8 million to US$441 million.
Shokirjon Hakimov, deputy leader of Tajikistan’s Social-Democratic Party (SDPT), commenting on this situation has told Asia-Plus that distribution of the mentioned financial assistance depends on a level of a sound political competition, freedom of media and a level of openness of civic society as a whole in that or this country.
According to him, the distribution of assistance confirms that compared to other CIS countries
Ukraine
and
Kyrgyzstan
have made more successes in democratization of their societies.
