DUSHANBE, September 25, 2010, Asia-Plus — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) calls on the Tajik authorities to speed up work on ensuring transparency of funds of open joint-stock company (OJSC) NBO Roghun, in particular conducting an external audit at the company and making regular reports available to the public, the IMF team head Todd Schneider told reporters in Dushanbe on September 24.
According to him, the Roghun share sales have reduced compared to April this year and the IMF team agreed with Tajik government’s prognosis that the sale of shares in Roghun was expected to earn not more than 880 million somoni. “By July, the sale of Roghun shares has earned the government 820 million somoni,” Mr. Schneider said.
The IMF welcomes the government”s cooperation with the World Bank on the Roghun hydroelectricity project and the work on conducting techno-economic, social and environmental impact assessments, he added. Upon completion of the assessments, the World Bank could head international consortium that would finance the completion of the Roghun hydroelectricity power plant (HPP).
Asked about the Roghun fundraising campaign’s impact on the poverty rate in the country, Mr. Schneider said that he could not answered definitely because he did not have information about shareholders in the company. He, however, supposed that some of shareholders were well-to-do persons and the purchase of shares in Roghun had not had considerable impact on their family budgets.
In the meantime, Mr. David Owen, Senior Advisor in the IMF”s Middle East and Central Asia Department, noted, “We do not doubt that many of those who purchased shares in Roghun are not wealthy people and impact of the Roghun fundraising campaign on them in a short-term perspective causes a certain concern. Therefore we discussed this issue with the Tajik authorities at the beginning of this year and the Tajik government made a decision to stop an active advertising campaign on Roghun’s construction. As a result of this, the Roghun share sales have rather reduced.”
“However, there ought to differentiate clearly between short-term and long-term perspective of impact on the poverty rate,” said Mr. Owen. “According to the government, the construction of the Roghun HPP will promote development in a long-term perspective, because the country will be provided with reliable source of power and this will allow making success in reducing poverty.”
We will recall that in a statement made on April 13 this year, the IM team noted that the Roghun fundraising campaign had a negative impact on macroeconomic and social indicators of the country. Funds collected for the construction of the Roghun in January-March amounted to 3 percent of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP).
To raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun HPP the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6 this year. Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni (US$1.37 billion) worth of Roghun shares.
