DUSHANBE
, May 4, Asia-Plus – Murodali Alimardonov, the head of
Tajikistan
’s National Bank (NBT), announced at a news conference in
Dushanbe
on May 3 that a total debt of
Tajikistan
’s cotton farmers to domestic and foreign creditors has to date amounted to some US$292 million.
According to him, a number of negotiations have been conducted with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) on a strategy of development of cotton sector in
Tajikistan
.
“We have asked these international financial institutions to assist in the issue of settling the problem of the Tajik cotton farmers’ debt,” said Alimardonov, “At present the ADB and the WB are jointly working with the Tajik governmental commission to find out the reasons for appearance of these debts.”
According to the Tajik central bank head, the main reasons for appearance of the debts of cotton farmers are rising fuel prices and reduction in prices of cotton on the world market, lack of subsidies for production of the textile raw materials and wrong land reform.
“We will have submitted our proposals on settlement of the problem of cotton farmers’ debts for consideration to the government by late June this year,” Alimardonov said.
He also noted that a project for allocating loans on development of the country’s agrarian sector was currently under consideration of the government. Under this project loans will be provided to farmers directly but not through mediators.
