KHOROG, January 9, 2009, Asia-Plus / — In Gorno Badakhshan, remittances to local branches of commercial banks rose 56 percent in the year to December 2008, reaching more than 36 million US dollars, Zafar Bakhshiyev, head of the banking supervision department within the Khorog branch of National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, despite the fact that the ongoing financial crisis has affected many countries where Tajik nationals are working, including Russia, remittance volumes did not decrease even in November and December last year.
In the meantime, as it had been reported earlier, the state-run news agency Khovar on January 6 quoted Zafar Bakhshiyev as saying that remittances to Gorno Badakhshan have fallen by 50 percent in just three months. Expert attribute this decrease to the global financial crisis that crisis has severely limited their ability to support their families at home, Khovar said.
In 2007, labor migrants remitted more than 34 million US dollars to the region, while in January-November 2008 the remittance volumes decreased by 46 percent, Khovar cited Bakhshiyev as saying.
According to Bakhshiyev, more than 24,000 residents of the region are currently registered as working in Russia.
