DUSHANBE, October 22, 2009, Asia-Plus — In recent years, labor migration has helped reduce poverty in Tajikistan significantly, Mr. Mirgand Shabozov, the head of the State Committee for Statistics, said at a national conference entitled “Standard of Living and Human Development in Tajikistan” that was held in Dushanbe yesterday.
According to him, rise in wellbeing of the population in 2003-2007 was connected, to a considerable extent, with increase in the number of labor migrants traveling abroad and increase in volumes of their remittances.
“The volumes of labor migrants’ remittances increased from 300,000 million U.S. dollars in 2004 to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 being equivalent to 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007,” said Shabozov, “Direct or indirect inflows of money into the country from labor migrants have promoted reduction in the number of poor people in the country.”
Labor migrants are a critical component in Tajikistan’s economy and remittances have kept many families in the country above the poverty line.
Shabozov stressed that the most considerable rise in wellbeing of the population was reported during the period from 2003 to 2007. “Taking into account that poverty line is defined as equal to US$2.15 per day, we have come to a conclusion that percentage of population living in poverty reduced in Tajikistan from 64 percent in 2003 to 41 percent in 2007,” Tajik official said.
He added that subjective estimation of wellbeing and data about availability of durable goods also confirmed that living standards noticeably increased in 2003-2007.
“However, some 18 percent of Tajik nationals still live in extreme poverty and these people spend only US$1.00 per day,” Shabozov added.
