DUSHANBE, December 19, Asia-Plus – Predictability of policy and ensuring rights of property promote mitigation of risks to development of business enabling environment in Tajikistan, Andrea Dall-Olio, Manager of International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Tajikistan Small and Medium Businesses (SME) Development Project, remarked at a press club in Dushanbe on December 18.
According to him, amount of investments, creation of jobs and further development of company depend on an amount of profit, which, in turn, depends on expenditures, risks and competition barriers, and state is able to impact each of these three factors to considerable extent.
The IFC’s project manager noted that by removing regulatory constraints, bureaucracy, alleviating tax burden, reducing inflation rate and regulating the labor market the state might decrease expenditures. Through predictable policy the state may mitigate risks and ensure rights of property. As far as competition barriers are concerned, they could be diminished through implementation of the competition law, access to financial infrastructure and regulating the beginning of activity bankruptcy procedure.
Dall-Olio stressed small and medium businesses promote formation of competitive environment, economic growth and employment of the population in the country.
As a whole, small and medium businesses are developing in Tajikistan, according to him. On the development of the individual entrepreneurship, IFC’s project manager noted that it is developing considerably in the republic. If by the end of 2002, only 70,000 individual entrepreneurs had been reported in Tajikistan, by the beginning of 2005, their number had reached 90,000.
Besides, over the past four years, a share of small and medium enterprises in the gross domestic product ha increased from 35 percent in 2002 to 43 percent in 2005.
“”Over the past years, considerable changes have taken place in a procedure of registration, which at present takes less than a week,” said Dall-Olio, “However, we have to work on improvement of the business environment in Tajikistan. We still have what to change in the situation.”
In the beginning of the next year, IFC plans to bring out the second report on development of the business environment in Tajikistan and conduct survey on implementation of law on inspection of economic entities.
IFC’s Tajikistan SME Development Project’s goal is to support the development of small and medium business (SMEs) and to increase investment in the private sector through improvement of Tajikistan’s business enabling environment.
A December 18 press club was dedicated to discuss the present state of the business environment in the republic. Experts and specialists participating in the press club touched upon issues related to various factors impacting small and medium businesses, legal foundation of development of business enabling environment in Tajikistan.
